The Lancaster Award (LA) is a fantastic way to reflect on all the things you have done as a student at Lancaster, and to think about how they provide you with examples of skills that are relevant to the workplace. This is great preparation for the recruitment process and will put you in good stead when applying for graduate roles or even when discussing an arts portfolio.

Each year we mark about 350 students' submissions, and over the years there are some common mistakes that students make…

So here are the Lancaster Award Team’s Top 10 Tips….

1. Don’t leave it to the last minute! Of course, we’re going to say this, but as the Lancaster Awards is all about reflection, sometimes you need a bit of extra time to think things through, and do that internal reflection effectively.
2. Utilise the resources available to you. You can watch our CV for the LA webinar, the LinkedIn Academy series, the Using STAR blog, Video Interviews in 60 seconds, or our podcast which includes an episode on the Lancaster Award, one CVs and one on video interviews.
3. Treat it like a proper job application. Consider examples you would include for a real job. Is it professional? Are the experiences appropriate for a future employer? Have you proofread your answers?
4. Utilise the word and time limits set within the application. You have 300 words to formulate your STAR answers for the skills bank – use them. 90 seconds are given for each question in a video interview, so take the opportunity to speak for that long and focus on depth and detail.
5. Follow instructions and read all information given. Note… you can’t use examples from your academic studies or from before your time at Lancaster (unless you are a 1yr PG student). Doing this will require resubmission.
6. Focus on the specific skill. We can’t say this enough to students completing the skills bank. Focus on the skill you are writing about. For example, if you are writing about planning, get across HOW you planned, not about teamwork, or how you solved the problem etc. Write about those planning strategies!
7. Utilise the one skill checker. Get one answer checked by a member of the careers team to ensure you are using the STAR framework correctly and writing about the specific skill in enough detail. Allow yourself time to get this checked and to work on the feedback given. The deadline for this is usually a month before the overall deadline, so make use of this.
8. Avoid ‘WE’, ‘What did you personally do?’ This is a common mistake in the teamwork question. Tell us what YOU did, not what WE did. Using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ creates ambiguity in terms of how you contributed within a team making answers difficult to assess.
9. Use positive active language. Avoid phrases like ‘had to’ or ‘needed to’ as it sounds like you were forced into something as opposed to making an active choice. Equally, use active verbs – instead of saying ‘I did this’, say I developed, engaged, collaborated etc.
10. Make best use of your Lancaster Award experience. This is really your chance to reflect on all the amazing things you have done whilst a student at Lancaster, and think about what those experiences have given you including those all-important transferable skills.

We hope these tips are helpful when completing your CV, skills bank and video interview.

The great thing about the Lancaster Award is that no two submissions are alike, so if you have any more questions, please email laquestions@lancaster.ac.uk and we would be happy to help you further. Most of all – good luck!

Related Blogs

• 

  Maximising Your Employability: Building Essential Skills During University

• 

  The Benefits of Working While Studying - A Student Perspective

• 

  Using AI effectively and ethically in your job applications

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by our bloggers and those providing comments are personal, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lancaster University. Responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within blog posts belongs to the blogger.