Slides from a presentation given at the Higher Education Academy STEM conference, April 2012. The talk describes the use of popular social media tools within the Careers After Biological Sciences programme at the University of Leicester, UK. Many of the resources generated are housed at www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com

1. STEM Annual Conference 2012
Use of Social Media in Careers Education:
An example from the Biosciences
Dr Chris Willmott
Dept of Biochemistry,
University of Leicester
cjrw2@le.ac.uk
University of
Leicester

2. Background: (Inter)national
• Employability high on the agenda of universities
• Global economic crisis  tricky job market
• Unistat statement (since Aug 2010)
• Key Information Set (from Sept 2012)

3. Background: Disciplinary
• Biological Science
= excellent platform for diverse careers
• Unlike some courses (e.g. Medicine, Pharmacy, Law)
Bioscience is not “vocational”
- students may not know some careers exist
- they may need help in seeing beyond the
“known” pathways e.g. PhD, post-grad Medicine

4. Background: Local
• Academic review of Biological Sciences at Leicester
(Spring 2006)
• Improved careers advice 1 of 6 recommendations

5. Birth of CABS
• Careers After Biological Sciences @ Leicester
• Programme started 2007 with support of grant from
institutions Fund for New Teaching Initiatives
• Two facets:
- series of talks about different careers
- online archive of material for those unable to
attend events
• The “spin” – all speakers are graduates from our own
courses (or key gatekeepers, e.g. postgraduate
admissions tutor, Head of Science at School of Edn)

6. Clinical Trials Teacher Laboratory
Coordinator Trainer Technician Police
Dietitian Genetic Cosmetics Officer
Counsellor Developer Research
Civil
Administrator
Servant
Ecologist Careers in Science & Doctor
Librarian
Careers from Science Market
Forensic Embryologist Analyst
Scientist Dentist Classroom
PostDoc Science Teacher
Fertility
Lawyer Researcher Writer Conservationist
Microbiological
Biomedical
Academic Services
Scientist
Nurse Research Manager

7. Brief for speakers
• All speakers are asked to speak for about 25 minutes
and include three core pieces of information (in
whatever order they see fit):
- what their current job involves
- how they got there from here
(i.e. brief personal history)
- top tips for anyone considering a move into
the same field
• Organisation of events:
“Here’s one we prepared earlier”: involving former
students in careers advice Biosci Edn 18-3SE
see http://tinyurl.com/BioSciCABS

8. Social Media
for Careers

9. Contacting speakers
• Traditional routes
- personal contacts (ex-tutees, contemporaries)
- recommendations from colleagues
• Newer route
- Facebook.com
- LinkedIn.com
• LinkedIn
- Business-orientated resource
- Categorisation issues, e.g. “Classmates”
• Facebook
- Search for known names
- Work through friends list

10. Facebook alumni group
• Better model – relational
• Two-way process, news fed to alumni
• >240 members

11. Central hub for resources
• Institutional VLE?
• Silo - no access for former students
- no access for broader community
• Free blogging services - Blogger.com
- Wordpress.com
• Previous experience with Wordpress
- Bioethicsbytes
- Journal of Left-handed Biochemist

12. Biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
• Resources about careers covered during annual talks
• List of sources for vacation studentships
• Other careers events

13. Embedded resources
• Cornerstone of resources = slides from talks
• Slideshare.net

14. Further resources: video (1)
• Video of talks?
- relatively easy to film, but...
- YouTube = max 15 mins for regular accounts
- Vimeo.com is good alternative
- basic account 500 MB per week
- editing costs can be significant

15. Further resources: video (2)
• Workplace interviews?
- short, pithy videos to complement
live events
- can fit on YouTube = higher impact
- requires budget

16. Further resources: audio
• Cheaper than video (production and editing)
• Podcast services (e.g. Libsyn.com)
- Subscription required
• free Slideshare account now includes capacity to link
audio to slides – “webinar” or “slidecast”
(subscription account can also add video)

17. Raising awareness of resources
•Wordpress and Slideshare have high visibility with
search engines
• Can raise further awareness by promoting on Twitter
and Google+

18. Simple Intermediate Advanced
(Cheapest) (Most expensive)
Combine audio recording
with PowerPoint slides and
Invite speakers to
upload to web
e.g. Slideshare, Vimeo,
careers event
Set up website or blog YouTube (if <15 mins)
to archive careers
Make audio recording
material
of talks
e.g. Blogger,
Wordpress
Collect PowerPoint Make video of talk and
slides from speakers upload
and upload e.g. Vimeo.com
e.g. Slideshare.net YouTube (if <15 mins)
Make short bespoke
Take portrait photo
video with speaker at
of speakers
their place of work and
upload
e.g. YouTube, Vimeo

19. Acknowledgements
• Fund for New Teaching Initiatives
• School of Biological Science (Jon Scott)
• Alan Cann for Web2.0 wisdom
• Jo Badge for initial data crunching
• Biosciences PedR group
• Alumni who have been back to speak

20. Any Questions?
E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Twitter: cjrw
Slideshare: cjrw2
Delicious: chriswillmott
Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com University of
Leicester