Skills Fest 2023

From Monday 20 to Friday 24 November 2023, we celebrated our first ever Skills Fest, with a range of study skills sessions held in the Tavistock Centre and online.

Last week, we hosted our first ever Skills Fest – a five-day event for our student community, focused on highlighting and developing key academic skills. 

Held at the Tavistock Centre and online, the programme included a range of in-person and online sessions, led by our faculty and professional services staff. Topics covered in workshops included time management, citing and referencing, using AI in your studies, supporting resilience and wellbeing and more. Speed mentoring sessions, led by our staff and alumni, also proved to be very popular. Every lunchtime, we held pop-up stalls in the Tavistock Centre Lecture Theatre, with staff on hand to share tips and resources, answer questions and give out Skills Fest goodies.

Skills Fest was developed in response to feedback from our student body, gathered via our annual student survey and other channels. Rebecca Bouckley, Student Support and Engagement Lead, said: “We wanted to create a space where students could access further support and guidance, away from their courses, in areas that they told us they were finding difficult. It was a real delight to meet with students during the week and hear such positive feedback – we seem to have hit upon something that can make a real difference to their experience.”

She added: “Our mission now is to really embed this into the academic cycle so that all our teaching staff and students can take full advantage of the event, and access ongoing support via extra sessions throughout the year. Watch this space!”