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Self promotion

The Self-Promotion element is a key component of the Silver Wolverhampton Enterprise and Employability Award (WEEA). It will allow you to explore, assess and then promote your skills, qualities, values, motivations, behaviours, knowledge, interests and experiences to the world outside of the university of Wolverhampton.

Feedback from local employers at conferences and other network meetings with our university staff backs up the speculation that our graduates are not submitting applications and CVs to the expected standards. Similar negative comments have been made by employers in their feedback after conducting interviews with our graduates.

Written pieces such as CVs, application forms and LinkedIn profiles are usually the first form of contact you will have with an employer. Employers can receive hundreds of applications for every job they advertise: it is essential that you make sure that your self-promotional document, in whatever form it takes, really showcases your strengths, experience, skills, aptitudes, and values.

This task of ‘Self-promotion’ has been designed to help and empower you as a student to recognise, analyse and develop the skills, personal attributes and values in employability and then articulate through a variety of channels including CVs, personal statements, LinkedIn profiles, course applications, presentations and  interviews.

Firstly, by undertaking this task you will carry out a full review and an analysis of your strengths, abilities, personality, values, qualifications/certificates, training, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.

You will then not only match these against a typical job specification/description of your choice but you will cite evidence from your work experience, voluntary work, degree course and personal experiences.

During this process you will be encouraged to not only research strengths but also a job role, type of organisation and sector that you wish to aspire for.

Secondly, we are confident that in undertaking this task and the ensuing research; you will discover many transferable skills, qualities and values that will increase your choice of careers.

Finally, you will learn the importance of marketing yourself through the use of positive and effective verbs, adverbs, grammar and the language of the industry you wish to break into.

The Silver WEEA is embedded into all university courses, so at some point during your studies you will complete the self- promotion element as part of your course. The specific point at which you will do this depends on your particular course: for some courses silver award elements are embedded at level 4 whereas for others they are embedded at level 5 or 6. 

You may like to complete the element independently from your course. For instance, maybe you want to obtain the award at your own pace rather than waiting for the opportunity through your course. Or maybe you did the silver award elements early on in your course and you would like to revisit them because your career ideas and plans have moved on. If you would like to do this element independently you can do this via our Canvas course. There you can find full instructions, guidance and resources. You can also submit your work to us for consideration.  

The exact brief for the self- promotion element will depend on the way it is embedded in your course. Generally, you are likely to be asked to complete a writing activity from the following activities listed below. Only ONE of these undertakings is required for you to fulfil this task.

This is not an exhausted list and as long as the objectives in the form of learning outcomes below are attained further ideas can be discussed with your lecturer(s) or your careers consultant. 

  • A CV
  • Personal statement for job application
  • Course application
  • LinkedIn

Your Self-promotion task can be submitted via this Canvas topic. CVs, personal statements and LinkedIn profiles vary in terms of formatting and length. As a general guide aim for:  

  • Either 1 complete side of A4 or 2 complete sides of A4 if you are submitting a CV or LinkedIn profile. (Academic and research CVs tend to have different conventions, so we can accept a longer CV in this case.) 
  • 47 lines (approximately 4,000 characters) if you are submitting a personal statement which you intend to use for UCAS (UCAS teacher training, nursing and social work statements have strict guidance in terms of length).  
  • Approximately 1 – 2 sides of A4 if you are submitting a personal statement for a job application or course that does not use UCAS in the application process. 
  1. Recognise what makes a good written account of your employability 
  2. Articulate your employability through a targeted written account. 

If you are completing this task independently from your course, full resources and instructions about this element are available on our Canvas topic.  

If you are completing this task through your course speak to your module tutor for help, or contact careers@wlv.ac.uk. Some of the resources available on our Canvas topic may also be helpful.  

There are a wealth of interactive resources available on CareerSPACE, our careers information portal where you can access interactive tools, videos and e-learning. See www.wlv.ac.uk/careerspace   

The Self-promotion marking sheet will also serve as a useful resource because we will be using this marking criteria to assess your self-promotional piece.