Knowledge Building

Active Hud's Gym, swim & class memberships

Note: This opportunity requires signing up for a paid membership of £18 p/m.

About this opportunity

Our brand-new partnership with Kirklees Active Leisure (KAL) has provided us access to ten KAL sites, seven including Swimming. Alongside access to these facilities, we also provide our high-quality onsite facilities including the gym, performance suite, studio rooms, squash court, sports hall and access to classes as delivered by our instructors. This membership is £18 per month and provides an affordable opportunity to all students and staff to become more active, more often. 

How to engage with this opportunity

Within our £18p/m membership, we have teamed up with KAL to provide access to 10 sites across Kirklees (including swimming!) alongside access to our onsite gym, classes & facilities. To sign-up and book sessions, head to our website and visit the membership & benefits page.

What commitment is required?

Dependent on the opportunity you choose, this may be a short, medium or long term commitment.  Speak with Active Hud if you have specific questions about the commitments required.

Using this opportunity towards the Global Professional Award Electives?

You may use these experiences as evidence towards your Electives portfolio, assuming you're able to demonstrate it has had an impact for your personal or professional development or your wellbeing. The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.

 

British Red Cross workshops

About this opportunity

The British Red Cross is delivering free online and face-to-face workshops for people over 19 years of age in West Yorkshire.

They are offering the opportunity to engage with 3 different workshops:

• First aid – Are you interested in learning essential, life-saving first aid skills to help in an emergency? This interactive workshop teaches essential first aid skills and builds confidence and willingness to help someone in an emergency using everyday objects that you have around you.
• Tackling loneliness - Feeling lonely and isolated can make life challenging, especially during a crisis. It can be difficult to know how to help. This interactive workshop aims to give you the opportunity to speak openly about how it might feel to be lonely or isolated and learn skills to help others who may be suffering. Using activities and group discussions to explore the causes and effects of loneliness, where you will have the opportunity to reflect and share your own personal experiences.
• Adapt and recover from adversity - During this interactive workshop, you will explore tools and strategies for building resilience, learn to help yourself and others adapt and recover from challenges and developing practical and emotional skills to help cope with crisis. The workshop will be based around interactive activities and group discussion, with chances to reflect and share personal experiences.

If you choose to attend one of the workshops taking place online via Microsoft teams or Zoom, you will need access to a camera and microphone to take part.

How to engage with this opportunity

To attend any of these online workshop sessions you must book online British Red Cross workshops, for free.

If you book a workshop, please make every effort to attend or, if you're unable to attend, please ensure you cancel your place at least 24 hours before the session to make room for other students to enjoy these experiences.

What commitment is required?

The workshops are run on specific dates and times. Please select your desired date and time when booking the workshop.

Each workshop lasts for around 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Using this opportunity as evidence towards your Global Professional Award Electives?

You can contribute the individual workshops or all 3 towards your Electives portfolio. If opting for individual workshops, the time you can contribute towards your total will be as per the workshop lengths detailed above. Contributing all 3 will provide 4 hours and 30 minutes towards your Electives portfolio total. The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.

Gradcracker for STEM Students

Please note that Gradcracker is a resource for students on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects only.

About this opportunity

Gradcracker are a UK-based careers website, for STEM disciplines, that work with hundreds of employers each year - from large multinationals, to smaller companies that may only take 1 or 2 students a year, they cover a wide range of industries.  Gradcracker is a resource for helping students prepare to get into a STEM role by offering toolkits and webinars, and advertising work placement opportunities and graduate roles.

How to engage with this opportunity

You can find out more about how to use Gradcracker by watching the video linked to this page.  As a student, you can register for a Gradcracker account, for free, through their registration page.

Once registered, you can engage with Gradcracker's range of resources, such as:

• Webinars (accepted towards Global Professional Award Electives portfolio).
• Career Toolkit
• Career Coach (Your journey to success)

You might also find the Gradcracker Student Guide useful to explore what Gradcracker can offer you.

What commitment is required?

There are a variety of resources on Gradcracker, ranging.from application and CV preparation tools, to webinars hosted by STEM organisations, to work placements and graduate job roles, so commitment will vary depending on what you engage with.

Using this opportunity as evidence towards the Global Professional Award electives?

Currently, Gradcracker webinars are the only activities that are accepted as contributions towards your Electives hours for the GPA. The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.

Heritage Quay

About this opportunity

Heritage Quay is the University’s Archive Service.  They preserve and make available over 145 different collections so both academic and non-academic researchers can try and find the answers to their research questions.  In their learning programmes, you will have the opportunity to develop skills useful for your future career, whether this is in heritage or the arts; or if you’d just like the chance to experience something different.

Heritage Quay are offering the opportunity to engage with 3 different experiences:

• Archives as inspiration - Learn how to use archives for more than just historical research and see some examples of how others have used archives for inspiration.  Take part in this interactive session looking at some archival items and completing a practical task.
• Curating an exhibition - In this introductory session you’ll learn the basics of creating a historical exhibition, including writing effective text for the public and designing interesting displays.  The session will be delivered by Heritage Quay’s highly experienced Public Engagement Officer and will include time in the award-winning archive centre.  All participants will receive a resource pack containing additional information and guidance.
• Paleography skills - In a small group setting, learn some of the tips and techniques of reading handwriting from the 15th – 20th century.  Using documents from the archive, read some of these together as a group to practice those skills.

How to engage with this opportunity

To attend any of these workshop sessions you must register, for free, using Eventbrite.  The registration links for each are as follows:

• Archives as inspiration.
• Curating an exhibition.
• Paleography skills.

If you book a session, please make every effort to attend or, if you're unable to attend, please ensure you cancel your place to make room for other students to enjoy these experiences.

What commitment is required?

Each session is run on specific dates and times. Please check the Eventbrite registration pages for details.  The sessions last for different lengths of time:

• Archives as inspiration - 1 hour.
• Curating an exhibition - 2 hours.
• Paleography skills - 2 hours.

Using this opportunity as evidence towards your Global Professional Award Electives?

You can contribute individual sessions or all 3 towards your Electives portfolio.  If opting for individual sessions, the time you can contribute towards your total will be as per the session lengths detailed above.  Contributing all 3 will provide 5 hours towards your Electives portfolio total.  The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.

iDEA

About this opportunity

The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA is an international programme that helps you develop digital, enterprise and employability skills.Through iDEA's series of online challenges, you can win career-enhancing badges, unlock new opportunities and, ultimately, gain industry-recognised Awards that help you stand out from the crowd. 

How to engage with this opportunity

You will be asked to register for free with iDEA. It is vital that you register with your University of Huddersfield email and not a personal email address.  Once registered you can complete learning on a range of topics.

What commitment is required?

You can learn on iDEA at your own pace, at any time.  Each badge might take a different length of time to earn.  Short badges should take you around 15 minutes, medium badges should take around 30 minutes, long badges should take around 45 minutes and very long badges should take you up to an hour to complete.  Refer to the iDEA badges leaflet to see a rough guide of how each badge is categorised by time to complete.

Using this opportunity as evidence towards your Global Professional Award Electives?

By completing badges on the iDEA platform you may use the experience as evidence towards your Electives portfolio. The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.  It is advisable to note how long each badge takes you to complete in line with the guidance above so that you can fill out the portfolio accurately.  

About this Opportunity

Learning a new language is a great opportunity which gives you an advantage in terms of communicative & analytical skills, cultural awareness and general confidence - skills which then transfer to other modules and to the workplace. Languages also add a boost to your job applications, placement opportunities and future research.

The University Modern Languages Centre is based in Oastler Building and provides free languages courses for all students, staff and members of the public*. Classes are small and friendly and are taught by native speakers.

Languages offered:

• Arabic
• British Sign Language
• Chinese
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Professional English (for International Students)
• Spanish

How to engage with this opportunity?

To register your interest, please email languages@hud.ac.uk 

The Languages Centre's application form is open from late August. The application form can be found by visiting the Languages Centre webpage and scrolling to the 'apply now' section.

Applications are taken and processed in the first 3 weeks of Term 1

*Once you are offered a language module you will pay a £75 deposit which is returned at the end of the year upon successful completion of the module.

What commitment is required?

The commitment to this opportunity is that the course only requires you to be involved 2 hours a week, term-time only. Language modules currently start in Term 1 and run over 2 terms (a total of 44 hours of input).

Using this opportunity as evidence towards your Global Professional Award Electives? 

You can contribute up to a maximum of 5 hours towards your electives portfolio from engaging with a languages course through the University's Languages Centre. The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.

The Library's Library Live sessions

About this opportunity

The University library's "Library Live" programme provides a series of online training events covering topics including literature searching, using Summon, APA 7^th referencing, digital skills, wellbeing, and employability.

Students from any School, course, and studying at any level are welcome to attend. Most sessions start with a short presentation or demonstration, followed by an opportunity to ask any questions you have on the topic covered.

How to engage with this opportunity?

Full details of each session are available on the Library Live website. From this page you can book onto upcoming sessions, or view recordings of previous sessions where available.

What commitment is required?

Each session will last up to one hour. They are held on various dates throughout the academic year. If you are unable to attend the dates scheduled, most sessions are recorded so you can catch up with them later.

Using this opportunity to for your electives?

You may use these experiences as evidence towards your Electives portfolio. The evidence required is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, which should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.

TogetherAll

About this opportunity

Togetherall is a web community which is there to help individuals through difficult feelings they’re experiencing, even if they’ve never felt comfortable talking about them before.  On Togetherall, users can connect anonymously with others who can relate to how they’re feeling through chat or can use a range of tools to better understand those feelings.  Something that students might find particularly helpful are Togetherall's online self-help courses and resources which cover different topics to help be more resilient.  Such topics include use of alchohol and drugs, and bereavement to name a couple.

The Togetherall platform is available, for free, to all University of Huddersfield students and offers 24/7 access for support, which is a great resource to use if you need wellbeing help outside of the University's Wellbeing Service operating hours.

How to engage with this opportunity

 In order to use Togetherall, you must register for a free account.  You will need to provide your University email in order to register but this is a completely anonymous platform.  Once registered you can engage with the community or use the online courses and resources at your leisure.

What commitment is required?

There is no long term commitment or any requirement to be regularly active on Togetherall.  It is a resource to use whenever you feel you need support or want to learn more about how you might deal with welllbeing related issues.  Engaging with the online courses or resources will each have different lengths of time for completion but all are self-paced and can be accessed at any time.

Using this opportunity as evidence towards your Global Professional Award Electives?

Important Note: Due to the nature of why students might access the materials, you should only consider contributing this towards your Electives if you are comfortable sharing this experience with us.  This might be dependant on your reasons for engaging with the content.  Any contributions will be held in confidence unless we need to uphold a duty of care, where yourself or others may be in danger.  The GPA team does not expect anyone to contribute this experience if they do not wish to do so, but some might find it helpful.  We always recommend speaking with the Wellbeing Service where your wellbeing is impacted.

You may use the experiences of accessing the online courses and resources as evidence towards your Electives portfolio, assuming you're able to demonstrate it has had an impact for your personal or professional development and your wellbeing. As the evidence the GPA requires is a reflection of your personal and professional learning from engaging with the opportunity, you should strongly consider if you are comfortable with contributing this to your Electives before completing the portfolio.  Should you want and feel comfortable enough to share your experiences for the Electives, this should be added to your Electives portfolio document. This will be found on your Brightspace GPA module.