Exploring the world of work

Students encountered the world of work at an event held by Paisley’s uni.

The University of the West of Scotland’s School of Engineering and Computing hosted a Working With Industry Conference, which saw more than 100 students from the University’s School of Engineering and Computing in attendance.

UWS says students are central to everything it does, and added there is significant evidence that shows that students who engage with industry throughout their time at university are more likely to find rewarding graduatelevel employment.

The Working with Industry Conference offered students the opportunity to meet employers, find out about placements and hear from industry experts about what they’re looking for from graduates.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Simon Leonard, Vice President (Technology & Information Risk) at Morgan Stanley, and Evelyn Walker of Walker Gordon Associates.

Simon, who is a UWS BSc Information Systems graduate, delivered a speech dubbed‘Get your career on track’.

Walker Gordon Associates is a Digital Education and HR Consulting company, who work with small companies in respect of the scaling up of their organisations. Evelyn Walker’s keynote address was called All about you.

The event also saw representatives from Codeplay Software, Dell, ePlacement Scotland, FDM Group, Global Voices, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Malcolm Group, JP Morgan, Perception Data Consulting, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, SQA, Seric Systems, SmartSTEMS, and Traveltek in attendance.

Professor Ian Allison, Dean of the School of Engineering and Computing, said: “We are extremely grateful to the employers for all their effort in supporting this.

“The event built on our strong track record of working with industry and employer engagement events to enable student employability. We have seen our graduate level employment rise 16 per cent since 2014. It is our aim to be in the top quartile for all of our sectors.”