We know it’s only the beginning of an academic year but you may already be thinking of ways you can stand out with your CV once you’ve finished your degree or even ways you could start your own business. It’s the smart decision in a world where most of your fellow candidates will have the same or similar degrees. Getting involved with clubs, societies, and volunteering are all great ways of gaining real world experience that can diversify your CV.
One great way to stand out is to have experience working with a business using the skills you’re learning at university. During your time at Bangor, there are several ways you can gain experience with local companies in ways that are beneficial to your area of study, provide you with transferable skills, and allow you to still collaborate with other students and receive guidance from academic experts along the way.
Below are four great resources to gain experience working with a local business or developing your own during your time at Bangor University!
Enterprise by Design
We might be biased, but we think Enterprise by Design is one of the best ways to gain experience working with a local company whilst also providing you with chances to work with other students outside of your studies and learn from academic experts at Bangor University that you normally wouldn’t meet.
Enterprise by Design is a 10-week challenge starting in January of each year that pairs teams of students across Business, Arts, Science and Engineering to create business ideas for local companies.
Every Thursday, students are given tasks to complete with the expert help of lecturers that lead to developing their own ideas. These ideas can propel your group to win a portion of the £5000 cash pot. In the past, teams have designed apps, services, tourism experiences, and even a cruise ship entertainment attraction for local companies such as Zip World and Rib Ride.
This year, our teams of students got to work with local companies DMM and Halen Môn Salt. Students learnt about many aspects of the companies such as competitor research, product packaging, marketing, and the manufacturing of the companies’ products.
Our teams went to visit Halen Môn and DMM to get a real feel of their brands — find out more here.
By working with a local company over ten weeks, EBD students not only get to learn about the business, they get to create ideas for them utilising skills from their courses and the weekly workshop sessions.
Bangor University Employability Service
Bangor University Employability Service is a great resource to gain experience working for local companies during your time at university and after you graduate. Through their Target Connect service on the University’s website, you can apply to graduate jobs, internships, placements and also part time jobs that are featured on the board.
They also offer careers guidance appointments, where an advisor can speak with you about your future career, or you can also book a meeting with business mentors, where they’ll provide one on one support and guidance to help you start your own business.
Alongside one on one support, they also offer webinars that can help you in your career path! They put on webinars that can help improve your CV, show you how to utilise LinkedIn better, improve your interview skills, and give you tips for using social media for your career.
To learn more go to targetconnect.bangor.ac.uk to sign up and to get updates on jobs and events!
P.S. Target Connect post job opportunities for students in the local area and beyond on their Instagram account! Give them a follow to learn more about their #JobOfTheDay.
B-Enterprising
B-Enterprising is a part of Bangor’s Employability service and supports people who want to develop a business idea or start freelancing.
If you’ve got an idea for a business and want to explore ways of developing it further or you’re looking for startup funding, B-Enterprising is a great resource for linking you up with potential opportunities.
They can help link you up with potential funding, help develop your enterprise skill with one to one business mentoring, and provide advice and support if you’re ready to take the plunge into freelancing.
On their social media, they share links for funding opportunities, grants, competitions, awards and more that can help you jumpstart your new business idea. They also share inspiring stories from former students who have developed their ideas while being students at Bangor and workshops you can attend to help you on your startup journey.
Give them a follow for reminders of upcoming workshops and funding opportunities!
Enactus
If you’re wanting to help make impactful changes in the world, you should check out Enactus Bangor. Enactus is a worldwide program which puts university teams of students together who create projects that benefit the local community.
Enactus is all about entrepreneurial action that can provide positive change to communities around the world, and it provides students with guidance from academics and business leaders to develop programs for their local community. Every year, students show off their work at regional, national and global competitions.
Alongside 60 other universities in the UK, Enactus Bangor competes each year where they showcase their social enterprises and show the ways their plans are helping one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development goals, such as fighting hunger, providing clean water, providing health and wellbeing and more.
Enactus is a program where you can collaborate with other students, gain business experience and get advice from business leaders and educational professionals as well as volunteer experience to help improve your local community during your time at Bangor University.
To get involved, visit their Facebook or Instagram here.
Know of some other resources for business experience at Bangor? Comment below!