SRS, in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire, are delighted to be shortlisted for the Building Effective Partnerships award in the AGCAS Awards for Excellence.
The AGCAS Awards for Excellence celebrate good practise amongst higher education careers and employability practitioners and their partner organisations. The Building Effective Partnerships awards focuses on effective collaboration between organisations.
The partnership between SRS and the University of Hertfordshire results in the delivery of the Assessment Centre Experience (ACE) programme. ACE is a series of graduate assessment centre simulations, taking place over the course of three weeks. Previous years saw the assessment centre simulation take place at Watford Football Club. This year it will take a digital format to reflect the recruitment processes employers are currently using. Over 3,000 University of Hertfordshire students take part, from 9 academic schools. The assessment centres are part of embedded modules in the students’ curriculum, meaning their learning is contextualised and contributes to their academic record, but they also gain representative experience of the challenging graduate recruitment process.
ACE is designed to support students who may not have the experience, knowledge and opportunities to navigate recruitment processes and present themselves to employers. Bespoke materials (including job descriptions and assessment activity briefs) are created for each different school of students, which are used in exercises which accurately reflect an employer’s recruitment activities. Students are assessed in these activities by professional assessors and receive individual feedback reports. The feedback is used for self reflective assignments and future career planning, with support from the University of Hertfordshire Careers Team.
Feedback from students on their experience of ACE is always hugely positive, with one student commenting "I found it life changing, I received feedback that will help me personally and professionally that I would have never known about had I not come."
You can read more and see the full shortlists in the AGCAS Awards for Excellence HERE.
The award winner will be announced at an awards webinar on Tuesday 14th July!