About our project

In January 2014, we received the good news that we had been successful in our bid for an extension of our original project via the Jisc FE and Skills Development and Resources Programme – Embedding Activity. We will continue to use this blog to record our activities, outputs and achievements over the next months.

The aims of our Embedding project are:

- to build on the positive outcomes and outputs of our original webinar project
- highlight the key employability skills identified in webinars by the employers who took part in our original project
- produce a well structured and resourced blended learning course to teach students the skills of setting up and running a webinar as a 21st century employability skill
- continue to disseminate our project findings and offer support through Jisc Regional Support Centres to help embed webinar training for students as part of a tutorial or curriculum programme using a blended learning course.

Thursday 28 March 2013

A post to say Thank You

As we begin the final evaluation of the Students4webES project, we would like to take a moment to thank the employers and institutions who supported the project by participating in a webinar. 
A big THANK YOU to...




Without the support of the above employers and institutions we wouldn't have a project to evaluate!


Thursday 21 March 2013

Update on the Pizza Hut 140 second interview

A few posts back I wrote about Pizza Hut running 140 second interviews at a recruitment event to find a new social media director. My understanding was that they would then run a second round of interviews via Google Hangout to get to know the candidates a bit better, it turns out I was wrong.

They did run interviews via Google Hangout, but only for people who weren't able to make it to the face to face interviews held on the 10th March. These Google Hangout interviews took the same format as the original interviews - to sell yourself to the panel in 140 seconds! This really does require an additional level of skill, not only requiring a level of confidence that the technology is going to work, but the skills to set it up right. It is crucial that the audio levels are right so that your 140 second pitch can actually be heard!

During our webinar project, we found that although it might seem easier to run a webinar (or Skype, Google Hangout etc) without wearing a head set, using the built-in microphone and speakers, the audio does really suffer and often leads to people having to repeat themselves - if you only have 140 seconds your certainly don't have time to do that!

To read the article in full about the Google Hangout Interviews, click here.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Student centred guide to running a webinar

Having completed our first main output of the Students4webES project - the 8 recorded webinars with employers about employability skills - it is time to move onto working on the other key outputs.

With the conference date set and the event management team on board we have moved onto our final output - the student centred guide to running webinars.

The core group of students involved in the project decided that the guide would appeal to students if it was in the form of a poster. After a long design meeting, which involved deciding on the content and format of the poster, we celebrated by eating lots of pizza at Pizza Express.

Last week we held two photo shoots to capture some images to go on the poster. Luckily Ben, an A level media studies student in the core group, brought his camera along to the second session and we managed to take some nice photos.

Below are a few of the photos taken during the photo shoot...






... but you will have to wait until the April 22nd, the date of the conference, to find out which ones made it into the poster!





Tuesday 12 March 2013

The Event Management Team

As part of the Students4webES project, Abingdon & Witney College will be hosting the JISC RSC South East event 'Employability Skills and Technology: Improving Outcomes for Learners' on April 22nd at the Witney Campus. In order to ensure the day is a great success, we have enlisted the help of a group of six 1st year Business Studies students, based on the Witney Campus, to help with the event management.

If you are attending, do look out for the students below who will be on hand to guide conference attendees to the right rooms and to generally ensure the smooth running of the event!


To find out further details about the event click here.

Monday 11 March 2013

Conference date and details

Students4webES Project will be taking part in and hosting the JISC RSC South East event 'Employability Skills and Technology: Improving Outcomes for Learners' on April 22nd at the Witney Campus of Abingdon & Witney College. Below is a brief overview of the event, as described on the JISC Advance website:

"Learning providers are increasingly being challenged to ensure that learners are equipped with a range of skills to prepare them for the world of work. This event will provide an opportunity to share ideas, solutions and best practice in the way technology can provide some innovative ways to develop employability skills." 


This is a free event, if you wish to join us, please click here to find out more details and to book your place.


Sunday 10 March 2013

Pizza Hut's 140 second interview!

Today Pizza Hut are holding interviews that last only 140 seconds at a recruitment event in America, according to Forbes. They are interviewing for a new social media manager, thus the 140 second reference to Twitter's 140 character limit, but interestingly they intend to hold the next round of interviews via Google+.

I assume this will involve a Google Hangout and will require some of the skills our students have been learning about whilst participating in our project. This is another example of the rise in video conferencing and webinar technology in recruitment. Click here to read the article in full.

Science & Technology Facilities Council webinar

Just over a week ago we completed our eighth student run webinar, with Rosie Sherry, from the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at Harwell Campus. Below is a recording of the webinar, which was recorded on the Abingdon Campus of Abingdon & Witney College.


This is the final webinar we are going to produce and is an important outcome of the Students4webES project. We have now turned our attention to the other outcomes of the project, a student produced guide to webinars and a conference. Watch this space for more news on both of these very soon!

Thursday 7 March 2013

Wenn Townsend Webinar

Last Monday we held our seventh student run webinar with Lee Baker from Wenn Townsend Chartered Accountants. He spoke to a group of AAT Accountancy students from Abingdon & Witney college, via BlackBoard Collaborate, giving very helpful advice on applying for a position as an accountant.

Below is a recording of the webinar.