TESTIMONIALS
National Committee Training: Manchester September 2009
Testimonials from...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From our Guest Speaker...
“I think Bright Futures is a great organisation because to me having real clarity and focus around what you want to do with your life really helps you to attract a great career once you leave university, so I think having that organisation which gives people that clarity and focus and gets them thinking about it is brilliant.”
Rachel Elnaugh
Back to top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From our Committee Members...
“We are looking forward to getting as many members as possible this year to expand our membership base, we are also looking forward to our Dinner with Industry event in November.”
Angharad Williams, Swansea
“I think it is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is graduating from university to get involved in the Bright Futures society as it helps you with your career after university. It is also great to help others who may not know what they want to do yet.”
Harriet Black, Swansea
“My older brother graduated last year from Manchester University and he spent a year trying to build up the society, he wanted a safe pair of hands to take it over so he asked me if I was interested.” “Actually building up a proper society and building a committee, as well as seeing us have around 50 members by the end of the year would be really impressive and I’d like to see that happen.”
Bir Virk, Manchester
“This year we really want to extend the knowledge of the society on campus and try to get some more members, including advertising and bettering our links with corporate contacts. Last year, the committee started for the first time so we really want to spread the word and make sure people know what Bright Futures is all about and how best to get into employment after university.” “I’m involved in Bright Futures because when I got into my second year I started to panic about where I was going to work after university, and how I would find out about the jobs that I wanted to get into. So, when I came across Bright Futures I thought it was the sort of society that could help me to control that stress a little bit more. By being involved in the society and knowing the questions I was asking last year, hopefully I can start to target events and link contacts that can help others this year and make things a lot better than it is already.”
Amy Ratcliffe, York
“The initial reason why I am involved in Bright Futures is to increase my commercial awareness. My careers advisor recommended I get involved but then I found out there wasn’t a Bright Futures society at my University so now I am keen to start one. So when Bright Futures gets big, I can be the one to say that I started it in Liverpool.”
Marcel Pearce, Liverpool
“In Edinburgh our societies are mainly focused on banks and consultancies and Bright Futures gives us a wider range of companies. I didn’t know about Rolls Royce, I didn’t know about Centrica and now we have some big companies coming to talk to us, so for all those students who want to go into graduate jobs it gives them more options outside of banks. Basically, I’m part of Bright Futures to see what is out there and to learn more about other companies.”
Emma Li, Edinburgh
“My lecturer made us aware of Bright Futures through emails, saying: any students that are interested or want to get involved, it will improved your CV and you can gain some experience for the future.”
Suniel Asif, Sheffield
“The best part of the day was being lectured by Rachel Elnaugh, she a person who has had her ups and hers downs and she gave a fantastically inspirational talk.”
Natasha Hussein, Bristol
Back to top
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From our Corporate Investors...
“This year we have just launched our company and we are really hoping to help support Bright Futures because we feel like we’ve got great synergy in terms of trying to help students research and understand their careers, and because that’s what Bright Futures does quite a lot of, we really think that we might be able to work in partnership with them to help students overall figure out what they want to do.” I actually heard about Bright Futures very randomly, it was right at the beginning when I was thinking about setting up this company, I went to a careers fayre with a clipboard to go and do some research and ask some students questions. As I was having lunch, Simon, who actually runs Bright Futures, came and sat down opposite me, I didn’t realise who he was and I just started using him as a reference point, obviously I didn’t think he was a student, and strangely he just said, ‘actually I run Bright Futures so this could be a great partnership here’, so I found out about it purely by chance at a careers fayre.”
Rob Wescott, Careerplayer.com
“We just came out of an interesting event about building a legacy and if we can help societies grow and create their own legacy, and be a core part of that, then in a year’s time hopefully when they are looking to hold events they will come to us, another year down the line the societies will become bigger and better, so working in partnership we can help each other out.” “The real difference between Bright Futures and other societies is the quality of the students who are there, they are all really proactive. I have been to a few events now and they will all come up to you and they will start networking, the people on campus are the ones that are going to do something with their careers. They are good students to get to know. We can build relationships with these students and the individuals, hopefully helping us all to grow together.”
Ali Lindsay, RateMyPlacement
“I think essentially it is more of a networking opportunity and focused activity that is good for us, because we and a professional body [ACCA] we don’t so much offer a graduate scheme but we have an association with many other partners such as KPMG, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Deloitte, they all offer graduate schemes and we work in line with them in terms of professional qualifications. We want to have access to the type of students that are focused and interested in careers in accountancy and finance, and I think these societies like Bright Futures are a great access.”
James Johnston, ACCA
“I just tend to find that dealing with the Bright Futures students that they are very switched on, very focused and quite committed. They know really what they want to do, where they want to go, and from an employer’s point of view, we want to be able to help people get there. I think that’s quite important to an employer that they know themselves what they want to get out of things, so that’s helpful for us to tailor what we do and how we communicate.” “It has been a really good opportunity to actually meet face-to-face with a lot of the committee members which is often not possible just due to the amount of times that we get to go on campus, and how many student societies and other career and academic contacts that we make, it’s just nice to actually get a chance to put a face to a name and sit and chat to people, get to know them a little bit more and I always think that face-to-face communication is just that bit better for building relationships. Networking in general is really helpful and it’s been a really good day just meeting all the students.”
Rachel Pickles, KPMG
“I was quite please with the outcome of my workshop, its seemed to go down well, going round the room establishing what people had taken from the session. We had sessions on how they were going to plan their workload, I made them re-assess how they manage themselves, as well as looking heavily on goals, how they set their goals and achieve their goals. People also look at the communication skill side of things, how to interact with a colleague. I think one thing people have taken away from it is that they have to flex their communication style for the team members and the people they are working with so their approach, how they interact, and how they get people to do things with them within a committee as a society, it has raised their awareness of how they may be able to do that.”
Aubrey Stewart, The Learning Architect
Quick Links:
The Event Itself
Photo Gallery - Manchester
Photo Gallery - London
Testimonials - Manchester
Testimonials - London
Back to top
