The Volunteering database will provide a single source for quality assured volunteering opportunities on and off campus.  Students will be able to identify opportunities which develop their skills and match their interests and availability.  The breadth and depth of experience of our alumni community is being harnessed to help our students in their career planning through the new ‘Leeds Network’ which will provide access to a wide range of alumni career profiles with the opportunity to make contact to gain a unique and personal insight into their career path.  Both systems will be accessed via the LeedsforLife website or directly at: and https://volunteering.leeds.ac.uk and https://leedsnetwork.leeds.ac.uk.

Support for skills development is a major aspect of our LeedsforLife commitment and the LeedsforLife Foundation can help when students have an idea for a project they’d like to run (over £80,000 of funding has been provided directly to students for projects in the UK and abroad).  The Foundation can also offer support towards the cost of students attending academic conferences to enhance understanding of their subject, to develop their personal and professional skills and to assist in their career planning.  See Foundation guidelines and case studies at:  https://leedsforlife.leeds.ac.uk/Foundation.aspx

Personal tutoring provides an important one-to-one opportunity to help our students in their academic, personal and professional development.  To support our employability agenda the webforms which students use to prepare for personal tutorials have been amended to encourage greater reflection on skills development and career planning through more active engagement with the Decide-Plan-Compete approach and the experts in the Careers  Centre.

And what’s next for LeedsforLife?  We want to encourage schools and services to continue to use the LeedsforLife ‘brand’, in Partnership with students, to highlight the skills development opportunities they provide and we are about to embark on a major piece of development work which will respond to feedback from staff and students through a major redesign of the whole website.  The aim is to refine and simplify existing functionality and to add new features including enhancements to the online booking system, a mobile interface and access to the LeedsforLife Higher Education Record which will enhance the Diploma Supplement and Transcript by providing a more comprehensive record of academic and co-curricular achievements.