About the Careers Service

The University of Plymouth Careers Service is committed to promoting equality of access and works to uphold the University’s principles of diversity and inclusion to ensure our services are accessible to all regardless of protected characteristics or personal circumstances.

We work in accordance with the student support policies and guidance created by the Equality and Diversity team. Specifically, as outlined in the University’s Equality and Diversity policy, we are committed to the principles of equal opportunities and respect for individuals in creating and maintaining an inclusive environment. We value and celebrate diversity, seeing this as critical to achieving our strategic aims and long-term success. We work to recruit and develop employees and students from a wide range of backgrounds and promote an inclusive culture where:

• A supportive and inclusive learning, working and social environment is fostered to ensure that everyone feels that they are valued and can work to achieve their potential
• Opportunities are open to everyone, and decisions are based on merit and are free from bias
• All of our employees, staff, contractors and visitors are treated with dignity and respect
• Everyone within our University community feel free to be themselves

We are committed to providing equality for everyone, regardless of:

• Age
• Disability
• Ethnicity (including ‘race’, colour and nationality)
• Gender
• Gender reassignment*
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation
• Marriage and civil partnership; and
• Pregnancy and maternity (whether or not you are pregnant or have given birth recently).

These are defined in the Equality Act (2010) as ‘protected characteristics’.

*The University recognises the problematic nature of the term ‘gender reassignment’ and only use it here in relation to the Equality Act (2010). In all other policies and procedures, we use the term ‘Trans’ to refer to people whose gender identity does not align with the gender they were assigned at birth, inclusive of non-binary and gender-queer identities.

As a University, we:

• Have a zero-tolerance approach to all incidents of abuse, harm and hate
• Value diversity and promote equal opportunities for everyone;
• Promote respect and encourage good relations within and between groups;
• Aim to meet the different needs of different groups, while promoting shared values;
• Promote an inclusive and harmonious place of work and study where people respect others and where harassment and bullying, intimidation and violence is not tolerated
• Prevent unlawful discrimination and victimisation
• Meet our legal obligations; and
• Take seriously and deal with situations where anyone has broken this policy

As well as the University Equality and Diversity Policies, as a member of ACGAS, the Careers Service is also fully signed up to the ACGAS member Code of Ethics. This helps members maintain the highest professional standards and the Code of Ethics identifies the professional attitudes and behaviours expected of members and provides guidance to help members recognise and develop these.

The Careers Hub in the Charles Seale-Hayne library is fully accessible to wheelchair users and fitted with an induction loop.

Our on-campus events are offered in accessible venues and every effort is made to ensure that disabled students are able to fully participate in events. Many of our virtual events are recorded to consider the needs of our diverse audiences. All teaching materials are produced in accessible formats or reasonable adjustments are made if required. Please ask our team if you need assistance to enable you to use our facilities or services more effectively.

Our Careers Hub is co-located with the Student Services Hub, within the Charles Seale-Hayne library under a collective term of “Student Hub”. As a co-located service, we have necessarily co-created a vision statement.

Our Vision:

To be recognised as a sector-leading front-line student support service, providing support that is inclusive, accessible, timely, flexible, and welcoming throughout a student's journey and beyond.

Hub Purpose:

To meet the needs of students, wherever they are, by:

• Providing a student-facing service that offers a variety of ways for students to get support with general queries
• Providing a relaxing space for students which is welcoming, friendly but confidential when needed
• Endeavouring to meet the needs of our students at all times throughout their student journey
• Signposting to the right appropriate support and opportunities where appropriate
• Providing a service to support staff to support students
• Providing physical and virtual facilities that enhance the student experience
• Creating a culture of continuous improvement to enhance our service to students.

Hub Values:

Students First

• The Hub is here for students and we listen to and use their feedback to continually improve the service we deliver.
Accessible and Inclusive
• We offer non-judgemental support for our diverse student population and strive to break down barriers, including the innovative use of technology, to allow us to reach even more students.
Welcoming, Helpful and Approachable
• The Hub is somewhere where students want to go because they know they will be listened to and supported. No question is too big, or too small.
Teamwork and Collaboration
• The Hub works across the institution and with relevant colleagues to ensure effective support and signposting, including beyond the University where relevant
Responsive, Reliable and Trustworthy
• Students can come to the Hub for anything and are confident they will get the advice and guidance they need, quickly and easily and non-judgementally.
High Quality, Knowledgeable and Professional
• Students want to come to the Hub because they know our staff are well trained, will give them excellent up-to-date advice in a professional way.

Feedback from our students, graduates, employer, academics and other stakeholders, both positive and negative, underpins continuous quality improvement within our service and is vital to us in order to improve. We regularly request feedback from our users in person and utilising feedback mechanisms but you can also provide us with feedback through emailing: careers@plymouth.ac.uk

Complaints will be dealt with in line with the UoP complaints procedure.

Our data is processed in accordance with the University policy on general data protection regulation. 

We also abide by the AGCAS Code of Practice, ensuring that our services and provision are guided by the principles of equality of opportunity, accessibility, impartiality, transparency and confidentiality. Information you share with the team will be treated confidentially and won’t generally be shared outside of the service without your consent. 

However, in exceptional circumstances, information may be shared without your consent, for example, if there are concerns for the health and wellbeing of you or another individual or there is another legal reason for doing so.

My Career

The Careers Service uses MyCareer to support you and provide access to the majority of our services through a single online platform. MyCareer is not a third party provider of Careers Services (i.e. Plymouth delivers the events, appointments and programmes within the MyCareer platform). MyCareer is a careers service management platform administered by University of Plymouth Careers Service staff to help us manage all that we have on offer for our students. The platform is used under licence from GTI Futures, a UK-based provider of careers information and technology, with the University as the Data Controller and GTI Futures the Data Processor. Information is collected from you during enrolment or during your use of the platform which is used by the University only to help us deliver relevant support to our students. Should you wish to view your data you can do so by logging into your account and selecting “My Profile”.

The University of Plymouth Careers Service is a member of three professional bodies: 1) the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), 2) the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) and 3) ASET all of which informs and contributes to our work with our stakeholders – students, employers, graduates, alumni and University of Plymouth academic and professional services staff.

Our service was last awarded accreditation in July 2021 through the AGCAS - Membership Quality Standard which outlines and demonstrates high levels of professionalism in careers education.

As a member of ACGAS, we abide by the ACGAS code of practice, which outlines core principles and standards for member services and their staff.