This summer, the team behind the Southampton Opportunity project are leading work to identify and profile the enormous range of authentic learning and development opportunities that our students can take advantage of at the University.
The aim of the project is to increase awareness of the opportunities that are available to students, and the skills that they are developing while pursuing their studies, that will help prepare them for successful and fulfilling futures.
These are opportunities that exist within, alongside and outside of the University鈥檚 curriculum, and they include activities as wide-ranging as taking a lunchtime language class, studying a curriculum innovation module, attending an employer workshop, volunteering on a sustainability initiative, working within a faculty-based team in a national competition, starting a social enterprise and working as a digital champion.
The opportunities will be presented in a new interactive website, which will allow students to discover and navigate the options available to them and filter the choices based on their field of study, interests or the skills they would like to develop.
The project is a partnership between staff and students, and this summer 20 interns are working with faculties, professional services and the Students鈥� Union to identify, log and categorise the opportunities, before they are added to the new site.
Sarah Rogers, the Southampton Opportunity Project Manager, says: 鈥淭he Southampton Opportunity is all about better promoting our offer to students with a particular focus on the learning and self-development opportunities that are available, and the support network we provide to help enable students to fulfil their potential at the University.
鈥淭his website will showcase the amazing opportunities that our students can get involved with and the skills they will develop along the way. Hopefully we will see higher levels of student engagement and students also making better informed choices about how to use their time effectively.鈥�
Professor Alex Neill, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education, adds: 鈥淲hile we want students to use the site to find opportunities to support their skills development and interests, we hope that it will also help them to understand the sort of competencies that they are already developing from what they are involved in, and encourage them to think about how what they are doing now might inform their future career direction.鈥�
The first version of the website will be launched in the autumn term, and students will have the opportunity to suggest and vote for features to be incorporated into the second version.
If you have any questions about the project, please email opus@southampton.ac.uk