Outduction: Enhancing the final year experience
The purpose of this event was twofold:
The event took place on 15 October 2009 from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm in the Meeting Zone, JG Building at the Penrhyn Road campus of Kingston University. Representatives from various organisations, such as Student Funding, Careers Service, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Bright Ideas, Volunteering, Travel, Posgrateful Studies, Brave New Talent, Kingston Entrepreneurship Society, Kingston Alumni and more, set up stands around the permieter of the room. They offered students advice and guidance applicable to their final year experience and beyond. Students could drop into the event at any time, and prizes were offered as an incentive to fill out the questionnaires. These featured questions relating to how the students view their current final year experience, what they plan to do after university, and also how effective or relevant they found the event itself.
Planning for the event began before the summer break, by Greg Harradine and Louise Shepherd, both Outduction student interns at Kingston University. The main potential barrier regarding the success of the event was simply trying to get the students there. Several student-focused marketing/promotional strategies were implemented and this resulted in over 300 final year students attending the event, and around 100 questionnaires being filled out. Feedback has been extremely encouraging and it is obvious that both the students who attended, and the Outduction scheme got a lot out of it. Success!
