The Saints Skills Spotlight Award is a new award at the University of St Andrews that allows students to learn how to write applications, highlight your abilities and learn how to talk about your skills for future employment or study opportunities.
This award tests your ability to identify the key skills and job description asked for and to showcase these skills.
The award shepherds you through the application process and is a realistic mock
recruitment process where you will submit a CV, cover letter and you will complete a
video interview.
By taking part in the Saint Skills Spotlight Award, you will boost your employability by learning how to analyse job/further study adverts to identify skills sought for specific opportunities, learn how to write an effective application, identify
examples of how you demonstrated those skills and present these examples in the most effective way to ace interviews.
How do you gain this award?
To apply for this award, you first need to sign up on Career Connect.
Once you are on the platform, select search from the menu bar and then pathways.
You will then see the Saint Skills Spotlight Award icon.
There are four sections to this award.
The first section is a self-directed learning section with resources to help develop your understanding of how to create a CV and cover letter for your application.
There are tips on what a successful interview looks like, some do's and don'ts for generating a personal profile, quick guides on what a CV is and what employers
are looking for in a CV and various resource videos.
You work through this section in your own time and this information will be helpful in the creation and submission of your CV, cover letter and video interview.
The second part to this award is the assessment submission where using the resources in the self-directed learning section, you upload the job description you are interested in applying for.
Once your CV and cover letter pass the required standard you are then sent an email with a link to the video interview assessment.
This is the final part for the successful completion of this award.
In this video interview assessment you will be sent three interview questions and you will perform a recorded video interview and the assessment criteria for your answers can be found on the Career Connect portal.
After the video submission you will receive feedback regarding your application and interview.
Congratulations you have now successfully completed the Saints Skills Spotlight Award.
Additionally, based on your interview performance top performing students will be invited to an assessment centre by a visiting graduate employer who awards prizes to the best performing students.
Those that are invited to the assessment centre will receive the Enhanced Saints Skills Spotlight Award.
More information can be found in the assessment centre resources section of the Skills Spotlight webpage.
The Saints Skills Spotlight Award is an authentic mock recruitment process as well as an award that is listed on your HEAR transcript.
The award is a great opportunity to develop your confidence and communication skills as well as to network with potential employers and peers.
It will also help you stand out from the crowd and increase your chances of landing your preferred job or course.
For more information contact skillsspotlight@st-andrews.ac.uk.
