Employability and Excellence Award Winners 2024
During graduation week, the Careers and Employability Service are pleased to be awarding 5 students who have demonstrated exceptional development of their skills and employability with Employability and Enterprise Excellence Awards. Award winners were selected based on their submission of a personal statement outlining how they have developed skills, sought out experiences and been highly proactive about their career development during their time as students at Bangor University.
Congratulations to all winners:
Employability Excellence Award (Undergraduate) – College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Chelsea Barrett, BSc Banking and Finance
Chelsea is the recipient of the undergraduate Employability Excellence Award for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Whilst studying for her degree in Banking and Finance, Chelsea worked part time for a local accountancy firm, gaining experience in payroll, producing tax returns and end of year accounts for clients. Additionally, Chelsea has been running a small mobile beauty business, gaining a strong customer base through marketing on social media. Chelsea also utilised the Careers and Employability Service to get support with application processes for graduate schemes. Chelsea said “In my search for jobs and/or graduate, I was quickly humbled how difficult and competitive the process is, particularly in Banking and Finance. Therefore, being able to showcase my additional skills and experience, significantly helped me during the recruitment process and allowed me to set myself apart from other graduating candidates”.
Chelsea was offered two graduate scheme places by high profile employers and is looking forward to starting her role as a Financial Analyst with the Bank of America later this summer.
Employability Excellence Award (Undergraduate) – College of Medicine and Health
Aisha Amos Howell, BSc Psychology
Aisha is the recipient of the undergraduate Employability Excellence Award for the College of Medicine and Health. Aisha has been an active member of the student community in Bangor and participated in a range of extra-curricular roles including supporting students in the School of Psychology and Sports Science to develop public speaking skills as a POPS mentor and supporting students living in halls of residence as a Residential Mentor. Aisha also travelled to France for a 2-week training academy which was accredited with an ILM Leadership and Management award. With her new found confidence to participate in experiences abroad, Aisha will now be a Challenge Leader for a group of students headed to the Machu Pichu this summer. To pursue her interest in a career supporting children with ALN, Aisha has accepted a role as Activities Manager for the London School of English.
When discussing her future, Aisha says “I hope that I can incorporate my love of the outdoors and exercise into SEN programmes more efficiently and use the skills that I have learnt to support children and develop their interpersonal skills while building on or creating a love for the outdoors”.
Employability Excellence Award (Undergraduate) – College of Science and Engineering
Amelia Harvey, BSc Zoology with Animal Behaviour
Amelia is the recipient of the undergraduate Employability Excellence Award for the College of Science and Engineering. During her time at Bangor, Amelia has been a dedicated volunteer through Undeb Bangor as a course representative and has also been recently promoted to Project Leader for the Afonydd Menai project. Through this volunteering project Amelia also participated in a Water Safety Course through Plas y Brenin and was awarded the Bronze and Silver Volunteering award by Undeb Bangor.
Amelia volunteers for the North West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group (NWWARG, a group within ARG UK), and travels to volunteer for their Bristol ARG group. Amelia has also completed PADI open water and drysuit qualifications. Amelia said “The water-based qualifications that I've accomplished in my extracurricular activities additionally build a portfolio for marine and riparian-based workplaces, providing me with a vast selection of skills that can be applied to an array of graduate career roles.”
Amelia will be commencing an MRes programme in Cave Bear Paleogenomics at Bangor University in September.
Employability Excellence Award (Postgraduate)
Nigel Skinner, MSc Counselling
Nigel is the recipient of the postgraduate Employability Excellence Award across all academic schools in Bangor University. As a career changer with a background in the technology industry, Nigel has sought out several experiences to develop his skills as a counsellor, including volunteering as a Community Panel Member for the Youth Justice Service, volunteering as a Schools Counsellor through the Flintshire Young People’s Counselling Service, volunteering for the Scouts Association and Age Cymru HOPE project. In addition to his studies, Nigel also completed a Place2be five-week programme on Understanding Children's Mental Health. After graduating Nigel plans to work part time in private practice as a counsellor and wellbeing coach and has also set up a not-for-profit company to seek grant funding to provide mental well-being services to young people and men.
Nigel says “During my studies, I was particularly taken by the impact of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and was keen that this would factor into my future career. To that end, I embarked on several extracurricular activities to broaden my experience and potential employment network and maximise my employability.”
Enterprise Excellence Award
Ping Huang, MSc Counselling
Ping is the recipient of the Enterprise Excellence Award across all academic schools in Bangor University. In June 2023, Ping was awarded an Enterprise Research Fund by Bangor University to develop a book idea and YouTube channel (@mindfulnesswithiris). This enabled her to attend the 4 week Unpreneur Inter-University Bootcamp offering training on entrepreneurship. Ping also participated in the Bangor University Innovation and Leadership Programme (BUILT) where teams developed enterprising ideas and approaches to solve social issues related to food production and consumption.
Ping also participated in the Taith-Coal Project, a 2-Week Leadership Exchange Programme in France, has organised fundraising events and participated in the TED2024 Vancouver Canada Live as a member of the TED translator community.
Ping will commence her PhD in Counselling Studies at the University of Edinburgh in September and said “This award is such a big acknowledgement on the direction I had been exploring and working on- entrepreneurship in mental health and wellbeing. Thank you for helping cultivate these creative seeds I found in me, and I felt so grateful to receive the support from the University in this way”