Emma Nugent, Manager of Warwick’s Placement Learning Unit (left, pictured with the team), has been awarded 'Outstanding Newcomer' at the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Conference held in Exeter from 10-12 September, where Warwick Student Careers & Skills staff showcased the University's leadership in student development and employability.

About the AGCAS Conference

The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) is the professional body for careers and employability professionals working with higher education students and graduates, and prospective entrants to higher education.

The organisation holds a biennial UK conference where best practice is shared and disseminated, colleagues meet to network, and high achievement is recognised.

Warwick was well represented at the event with Rachel Davis, Head of Student Development, and Richard Groves, UG / PGT Enterprise Development Officer, presenting Being Enterprising and Being Entrepreneurial in Action; and Anne Wilson, Head of Careers Guidance, supporting Gill Frigerio, Senior Teaching Fellow from Centre for Lifelong Learning in offering a workshop on Career adaptability: a new approach for identifying students in most need.

Emma Nugent, Manager of Warwick’s Placement Learning Unit, was recognised as the organisation’s Outstanding Newcomer at the conference awards ceremony, having been shortlisted prior to the event. Head of External Relations in Student Careers & Skills, Stephen Ward, said:

We’re thrilled and so pleased with Emma’s award as it highlights the crucial emphasis we place on supporting students in targeting, completing and reflecting on work experience through placements, internship programmes, extra curricular activities, and part time work.

Since the Placement Learning Unit’s inception early in 2012, Emma’s exceptional leadership has steered her new team both to fulfil their original remit, and also to take advantage of new opportunities to contribute to each student’s personal development, success and outcomes."

About the Placement Learning Unit

Warwick’s Placement Learning Unit (PLU) was established in February 2012 to support employers in developing and fulfilling employment experiences and support students in sourcing and preparing for employment experience, with the aim of enhancing their employability skills. Warwick’s HEIF-funded Placement Learning Unit is aimed squarely at supporting student employability through promoting the availability, student awareness and take-up of quality assured internships and work experience. The Unit’s remit is additional to that established within academic departments to support mandatory or optional years abroad, intercalated years in industry, and professional or clinical experience required by the course of study. It therefore places the focus on those students who may otherwise graduate without completing a placement or internship and without the opportunity to gain the confidence, knowledge, skills, and networks to support entry into their chosen graduate employment or further study.

Find out more

Visit the Student Careers & Skills website to find out about the range of services available to students and graduates.

Find out more about the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services.