futures Award

Employers look for more than just a ‘good degree’ and with a Futures Award you can stand out from the crowd

The Futures Award will formally recognise your employability and enterprise achievements whilst at UCLan to potential employers

How can I get involved?

There are several ways that you can gain credit towards the Futures Award. You may be able to get involved through activities that you are already taking part in through your degree programme; several subject areas have already accredited activities that their students are involved in, so you can get started on your Futures journey without having to do too much extra work! If this applies to you, your subject tutor will let you know and you will be invited to register with Futures.

Alternatively, you can sign up at the Futures Hub. Any undergraduate student can take part in Futures modules, all you need to do to register is to complete a Student Registration Form and an Employability Development Profile (available from your Futures tutor or from the Futures Hub).

Available Futures Award Modules

Semester 2 - Mini Modules

Click here for a comprehensive list of all available modules

Introducing the Employability Development Profile (EDP)

The UCLan Employability Development Profile (EDP) has been especially designed to help you get the most out of Futures. By answering a series of questions about your experiences, skills and abilities it enables you, in partnership with your Futures tutor, to identify areas in which you might need some further support.

You will complete the EDP several times: the minimum would be once a year, although ideally you will use it to review your progress each time you complete a module/mini-module.

What support will I get?

Futures has a wide range of support available to you to make sure that you are happy, confident, and getting the most out of the service. When you register for the Futures Award you will be assigned a Futures Tutor who will act like a personal tutor throughout your time with Futures. Your Futures Tutor will help you to review your progress using the EDP and offer advice and support as you make key decisions that will shape your future.

In addition to your Futures Tutor, you can make appointments with our highly experienced (and very friendly) Careers Advisors, who will be able to give you specialist guidance about whatever area you are interested in. Your Module Tutors are also experts in Employability and Enterprise and will support and guide your development as you progress through the Futures Award.

EDP Career Planning Booklet

How do I proceed through the Futures Award?

There’s no set way of progressing through the Futures Award – the path you take can be as individual as you are! Once you have registered for the award you will remain registered until you graduate from the University. You can choose to take your Futures Award credits all at once, or you can spread them out across your degree programme.

Once you have gained 20 credits (on top of your degree study) you will receive the Futures Bronze Award. If you have gained 30 credits by the time you graduate you will receive the Silver Award. If you have achieved the Silver Award and have also undertaken some work experience, you can convert this to the Gold Award by communicating, via a portfolio, the learning that you have gained from this experience.

In order to get 20 or 30 credits towards the Futures Award you can take a combination of mini-modules (at 5 credits each), or mix it up with some 10 credit modules and even 20 credit courses. As we’ve said, there is no fixed way of progressing through the Award, you just do what feels right for you!

As you successfully complete your chosen modules the credits you gain will build into one of three levels of achievement:

Why should I get involved with the Futures Award?

Unfortunately, it is a bad time to be looking for a graduate job. You’ll have seen on the news, and many of you will have noticed first-hand, that the UK economy has been suffering for a while.

Companies that had previously employed a large number of graduates are cutting back on recruitment in an effort to save money, and it doesn’t stop there:

• 18-24 year olds are most likely to be made redundant
• On average, there are 67.7 applications for each graduate job
• Only 8.4 of these will be interviewed
• Only 1 will get the job
• Tens of thousands of graduates, just like you, leave University every year looking for a job. How are you going to make sure that you stand out from the crowd?

The Futures Award gives you the opportunity to get ahead of the game, by showcasing all of your extra-curricular achievements and providing concrete proof to employers of just how employable you are.

We can’t guarantee that it will get you that dream job, but it will give you a fighting chance!

Information sessions

Please contact the team to find out when the next Futures Award information sessions are

futures award competition

£100 prizes to be won

The Futures Award is a new UCLan Certificate that has been designed to recognise, celebrate and reward you for the work that you do to improve your skills in the areas of employability and enterprise.

If you are registered on the Award we want to hear from you.

Write to us, explaining in no more than 500 words, how you think your experiences with the Futures Award have helped you to improve your chances of success in your future career.

We have 12 prizes of £100 for the best entries.

Please submit your stories, via email, to futures@uclan.ac.uk before the 31st March 2010.


Further information

futures award student handbook


For more information and to enrol for the Futures Award please contact the team.

'Futures' Team, library building
01772 895858
futures@uclan.ac.uk