Careers blog written by Irena Zientek, Information Development Manager, Careers

As this academic year draws to a close, we take the chance to look back at the highlights of another busy year.

October saw three recruitment fairs, bringing over 100 employers to campus, not including all the individual employer presentations, skills courses and social activities that ran throughout the year.

Working in… brought York alumni and other professionals to give students the benefit of their wisdom about careers in advertising, marketing & PR; health professions; criminal justice work; research; and small businesses.

York Award for first year students made its debut, with 664 students passing with 60% being rated good or above by the assessors. ‘Old’ York Award continued in the penultimate year of its current incarnation (with 271 final year students achieving the accolade), while York Award Leaders’ pilot programme put 35 finalists through their paces.

Once again, York students showed what an altruistic lot they are with all our volunteering programmes (YSIS, York students in Communities and @Work) filling 1,600 opportunities.

The Student Internship Bureau advertised and filled around 230 internships and is still advertising some for this summer vacation (so check out Careers Gateway for details!). This year also saw lots of new employers taking students on project-based roles for the first time.

The Enterprise team continued to offer opportunities to those students with an entrepreneurial spirit, as well as launching a new initiative for 2015/16 in the form of the Digital Leaders competition.

Our Information Desk team has been busy too, answering almost 6,500 face-to-face enquiries, over 1,200 phone calls and 6,574 emails this academic year.

Oh, and once again the Careers team got to meet some amazing students at 1:1 appointments, departmental drop-ins, and a whole host of events.

Even after all that, Careers staff won’t be taking too long a break this summer, as we’re still on hand to help students and graduates over the vacation. Plus preparation for next academic year is already underway.

Good luck to all those students leaving York this summer. Enjoy your graduation ceremonies – they’re well earned.

To those of you who’ll be returning in September – have a great summer and we’ll see you for another new academic year!