Employment Outreach
Bringing together individuals from different backgrounds and with different personal circumstances brings a wider range of experience, leading to improved decision-making, innovation and problem solving. To do this we need to consider what jobs we are advertising, and the skills needed to carry out the job? How and where we are adverting the job?
Some of the ways we do this can be found below:
Review the job description and associated promotional material to ensure you are appealing to a broad range of candidates. These questions may help:
· Are all of the ‘essential’ criteria listed necessary for doing the job well?
· Do any of the criteria reflect unnecessary assumptions or biases about the ‘kind of person’ who usually does this job?
· Could additional criteria be included that would open up possibilities for a wider range of excellent candidates?
· Do you include criteria specifically linked to inclusion as essential requirements? For example: ‘a proven ability to inspire and educate a diverse range of students’; ‘ensuring a wide range of teaching materials in line with wider aims to decolonise our curriculum’; ‘a proven ability to work with a diverse range of people’; ‘able to demonstrate a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion’? Having this explicitly included means that you can then explore this further at interview.
· Does any of the language in the description describe people rather than behaviours, or subtly reflect stereotypes (e.g. ‘results-driven’, ‘action-oriented’, ‘people-person’)?
· Would external applicants be familiar with the terminology you are using – is there a risk of over-using ‘insider language’ which could be exclusionary to those outside the HE sector? It’s worth seeking feedback from a person who is disconnected to your area of work and ideally outside of the University – for example, a friend or a family member.
· We often check out the web pages associated with a potential employer when considering making an application. Are your externally-facing web pages welcoming to people from all backgrounds? If a person from a marginalised group accessed your web pages would they feel that this is a place where they would belong?
Understanding your data in relation to the skill sets and diversity of people across your workforce will help identify any areas where particular skills and/or groups may be under-represented. The use of general and targeted positive action statements and measures can help to encourage applications from marginalised groups. You may also want to consider holding a JOIN US! session to take your vacancy directly to our city.
The JOIN US! and JOIN US! Schools/Colleges sessions are aimed at providing a supported route into employment for individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds, who might not otherwise enter employment in general or consider the University as a potential employer. It has been developed as a response to our engagement with local communities, in our work to develop the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.
The sessions are designed to be flexible and to work with a range of communities that are currently under-represented across our workforce or that face particular barriers to employment. It aims to remove entry barriers to employment such as process knowledge, including applications and interviews, and perceptions and expectations. - JOIN US! - Perceptions and Expectations
We recognise that the University has a role to play in removing these barriers, and the JOIN US! programme is just one part of our approach to culture change as well as an approach to address our own resourcing challenges.
It is no good having a vacancy that potential applicants are not aware of. As provider of education some people may never have considered seeking employment with us as they are not aware of the range of employment opportunities that we offer. It is important to carefully consider your advertising options to maximise the reach of your vacancy. Our Reach List(coming January 2025) contains contact details for some local organisations who may be able to support our aspiration of attracting a wider range of potential applicants. Fees may be charged by some organisations for the provision of some adverting services.
Work experience is a way to introduce people to the work environment and the many different job and career opportunities that exist, as well as providing information on the routes into jobs and careers.
Placements may be arranged either via the young person’s school or college, or directly with the University and can last between 1-5 days. The guidance below will help departments providing work experience opportunities.
Each year we contribute to a range of career focused events from job fairs, talks to sharing career’s knowledge and information
Up and coming events
National Apprenticeship week February 10-16 2025
Bristol Future Leader’s Launch February 2025
National Careers Week 3-8 March 2025
GCSE Boost March 2025
Past events
Department for Education Apprenticeships and Skills awards 2024
A tale of three apprentices – The Bristol Mix
Campus Discovery Day
Apprentice Levy Share 2024
Share to Support celebrates 397 apprenticeships - Engine Shed
City of Bristol Apprentice Career Spotlight
We report both internally and externally. Our reporting measures include data such as number of apprentices, diversity information, number of standards, number of schools, colleges and alternative education provisions engaged with annually.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2024
Annual EDI Monitoring and Reporting | Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Team | University of Bristol
University Strategy 2030
Vision and strategy | About the University | University of Bristol