UWTSD Childhood, Youth and Education Studies celebrate graduate evening and employability week.
19.01.2022
As The University of Wales Trinity Saint David starts its bicentennial celebrations, the Childhood Youth and Education Studies discipline are excited to be joining the celebrations with a graduate evening and employability week.
BA Early Years Education and Care (Early Years Practitioner Status) students at their graduation ceremony in 2019
This annual event provides an opportunity for past UWTSD graduates to highlight what careers and experiences they have been engaged with since graduation. It also provides an important opportunity for current students to see the range of careers available, and to share experiences with role models who have been on a similar study journey to themselves.
This year the graduates come from a range of different sectors and career roles including a University Lecturer, a Research Officer - Education and Children's Services, a Childcare and Play Sufficiency Officer for Swansea City Council, a Play Therapist, a Flying Start Leader, professionals from Primary School and the Police sector and practitioners from voluntary organisations such as the URDD.
Helen Griffiths, one of the organisers who is a Lecturer in Education Studies said,
“Last year’s graduate event was a particularly well attended part of our Employability Week provision with approximately 100 attendees. Current students benefited considerably from hearing about the varying career paths of our graduates and of how their degree course has allowed them to achieve their goals - from supporting children, young people and their families as part of the Cardiff City Football Foundation, to a manager of a local Family Centre, to adult learning support to studying for their PGCE teaching qualification to name just a few. This year’s provision looks to be just as varied and engaging.”
Jessica Pitman, Early Years Lecturer and another event organiser noted,
“Our final year students have shown exemplary commitment to the early years sector, studying and many working during the most difficult time in some of our lifetimes. We are all so very proud of our students achievements so far. It will be an excellent chance for them to see the possibilities of studying Early Years Education and Care and hopefully give them further motivation to be the best they can be for children. I hope they are able to make new connections and think big for their future careers.”
The graduate evening has for several years been an opportunity to showcase the many employment and business ventures students have engaged with since graduation. The Childhood, Youth and Education Studies team are also delighted to hear so many success stories and to hear how students have gone on to influence children and young people’s wellbeing, rights, inclusion and learning across Wales and beyond.
One of the graduates sharing her story will be Natasha Young now a UWTSD lecturer.
“I was working full-time in the early years sector and had a young family as well as other commitments, I really hadn’t considered university as being a viable option for my career progression. However, when I came across the Fast Track Flexi route for the BA in early Years Education and Care with UWTSD, I was so pleased that I would be eligible. When I embarked on my journey on the degree, I was both nervous and excited. Straight away, my nerves were settled by the kind, nurturing, passionate and knowledgeable team of lecturers. With each lecture that went by, I was more and more inspired by those lecturers, to sometime in the future, follow a career within academia.
“Upon graduating in 2020 with a first-class honours degree, my passion for the early sector had developed even further and I felt that the knowledge and experience I had gained as a direct result of the degree would support my career development. Shortly after graduating, I was afforded the opportunity to collaborate on some interesting projects. I developed some continuing professional development modules for early years practitioners in collaboration with Mudiad Meithrin. I worked on designing the new non-maintained curriculum in collaboration with Welsh Government. I also had the opportunity to undertake some lecturing work for the Childhood Studies degree with the University of South Wales. When the opportunity arose to join the early years team as a full-time lecturer, I jumped at the chance. It is only as a direct result of the early years degree and the team, and the opportunities and experiences that afforded me, that I had the confidence to apply for the role of lecturer.
“I am so grateful to UWTSD and their commitment to widening access for their programmes, as without that, I would not be in a role I enjoy in a field that is so important. I am proud to say that I am now part of the early years team at UWTSD. I am also looking forward to progressing my career further, by completing my Post Graduate Certificate of Higher Education with UWTSD before going on to complete a Masters”.
Acting Academic Director, Dr Nichola Welton said,
“The employability week offers an exciting and eventful week for Early Years and Education Studies students within the Discipline of Childhood Youth and Education. There are opportunities to engage with inspiring guest lecturers and organisations, training opportunities and a range of workshops. They all offer invaluable opportunities and experiences to help support students in making informed choices about the next steps in their educational and or professional journeys.”
This event will be the opening to a jam-packed employability week with workshops linked to imaginative play, supporting inclusion in the early years, First Aid training, Information Technology and Communication skills, social media and online awareness, careers, enterprise, and further study.
The team look forward to welcoming back past graduates and to celebrate their success and the continued success of UWTSD in its bicentennial year.
Further Information
Lowri Thomas, Principal Communications and PR Officer
07449 998476
