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There are plenty of opportunities for our alumni to get involved in a range of activities to give their time to support the University.
Some of activities that you can get involved in are detailed below, but if you have any questions or would like to discuss giving your time with a member of the Alumni Team, please email us at alumni@lincoln.ac.uk.
Please register your interest in becoming an Alumni Ambassador via the button below and a member of the team will be in touch. As the role of Alumni Ambassador is voluntary, we are always very grateful for any support you may be able to offer, no matter how small.
Talk to students and share your advice
Share your story and inspire the next generation of students
Provide opportunities such as work experience and placements
Share your insights to support curriculum development or join a board
Our Alumni Ambassadors often support careers events or guest lectures as part of either academic or extracurricular events where they can share their advice and expertise of their chosen industries with current students.
Taking part in an alumni panel event allows our graduates to showcase their strengths, experiences and advise alongside fellow graduates. These panels often illustrate the wide range of careers and industries that our students can enter upon graduation.
Offer your expertise and advice to prospective students by taking part in a visit to a school. Talking to students at a younger age helps us to inform them about higher education and how this can help them achieve their full potential.
Offer career support, advice and industry insights to current students through informal mentoring on our dedicated university platform. It provides a great opportunity for you to give back and connect with our diverse and talented community.
Mentoring experience is a sought-after attribute which is transferable into your own place of work. This rewarding experience will offer you the chance to inspire new graduates, but also develop your own professional and personal skills-set. Furthermore, you will:
Mentoring is a relationship in which a more experienced person helps to guide a less experienced person. Successful mentoring relationships should provide both parties with opportunities for growth of knowledge and expertise in their chosen area. As well as the satisfaction of helping others you can gain experience in leadership, communication, and management skills.
Mentoring should not be:
It is important to recognise that many of our students will lack confidence and may not feel they are able to make the first interaction with mentors. Whilst the team will try to manually match students with mentors, we do ask that mentors share posts on the main feed of the platform and ensure their profile is up to date to encourage students to reach out.
While some students will seek a greater level of mentoring, you may also find that others will reach out to only ask one or two questions with little further interaction. Please do not feel disheartened if this happens. Your response to that question will likely have already helped that student. However, should you have any worries or concerns please do get in touch with a member of the team.
Lincoln Connect is the University of Lincoln’s exclusive online community, connecting students with alumni and employers to seek career support, advice, and industry insights. Join now to start mentoring current students and fellow alumni.
For Lincoln Connect we use a secure, online platform called Graduway that allows students, graduates, and employers to network virtually. The site is easy to sign up to and functions in a very similar way to LinkedIn, the main difference being that all users are associated with The University of Lincoln.
We are also looking for volunteer Lincoln Connect Champions to support us to increase engagement with the diversity and inclusion groups on the platform. The groups include:
We are looking for Mentors who can commit to posting on a group of their choice a minimum of once per month. The posts should be related to the group topic and include insights into your own experience, advice, useful resources, and reflective questions.
Please contact Freddie Copson (JCopson@lincoln.ac.uk) if this is an opportunity you are interested
in.
Thanks for your interest in becoming a mentor. Please sign up directly via www.lincolnconnect.co.uk, speak to a member of the Careers and Employability team, email careers@lincoln.ac.uk, or call us on 01522 837828. We can then discuss your requirements and help you to get signed up to the site. We look forward to hearing from you!
As a Lincoln Connect mentor, you are encouraged to join us for one of our informal online training sessions; Lincoln Connect - How to make the most out of being a mentor. You can find more information about any upcoming sessions by contacting the team at alumni@lincoln.ac.uk.
In October 2024 we will be launching a pilot Professional Mentoring Programme. This pilot programme is designed to raise career confidence by linking mentors with second year students with a disability, and will provide a structured framework designed to develop skills, widen professional networks, and raise commercial awareness. We believe that help and guidance from our community can make a significant difference in the lives of our students.
If you would like to participate in this scheme as a mentor, please contact the alumni@lincoln.ac.uk by 15th July 2024.
What’s Expected
One of the things that we often hear from prospective students is that they are inspired by the stories of successful graduates like you. The testimonials of alumni who have used their experience at Lincoln to go on to make an impact on the world around them are extremely persuasive with those who are thinking about studying at the University. We would encourage you to tell your story by sending us a short “vlog” that we can use on our website and on social media channels.
We want the videos to be as natural as possible but it is important for you to include certain pieces of information:
If you have already completed our become an ambassador form, a lot of what you have included in that can be used as the basis of your video.
The vlogs should ideally be around one minute, and certainly no longer than five minutes, and at least HD720p quality (a standard smart phone will produce this quality or higher). If you choose to film via a mobile phone, you will need to position your camera to film horizontally, rather than portrait.
Once you have completed your video you should upload this to YouTube or vimeo and send the link along with the original video document to alumni@lincoln.ac.uk.
Your video might be used on our website, by our Careers and Employability Team and for various marketing materials. By uploading and sending us your video you are giving consent for us to use it how we feel best suited.
Should you have any other questions about the recording or use of your video please contact the Alumni Team on alumni@lincoln.ac.uk.
University of Lincoln alumni are uniquely placed to write about their experiences at Lincoln, their course content and how this has shaped their journey post-graduation. They are also the perfect person to offer advice to current and prospective students on their choices and offer insights into their chosen careers.
Are you keen to share your experiences or are you the expert in something from your chosen field? For example, if you undertook a work placement or received support from your lecturers or the careers service, is what you learnt something you wish to share with other alumni, current and prospective students?
Make sure that the topic is accessible to all and will provide a good insight that many can learn from. Some good topics may relate to your decision-making process when applying or choosing your course, work placements, study abroad experiences, how you overcame any issues, any support you received, work experience, an internship or graduate scheme you took part in. You may also have insight into your chosen industry, be able to offer advice on networking or how to get into this field.
Above all else, your valuable experiences can offer advice and support to fellow alumni and students.
The main audience for you blog post will be fellow alumni, current students from across the institution, not just your course, and any prospective students who may be interesting in the University of Lincoln. Therefore, please do explain any jargon that you use that might not be common knowledge and use language that is appropriate for students younger than 18.
An idea blog post will be approximately 500 -750 words and can include links to website and any images you wish to share.
Please bear in mind that if approved, it will be posted on our Alumni Success Stories Blogsite so will be read online.
If you could please send your blog post and any images to the alumni team at alumni@lincoln.ac.uk. It will then be reviewed by the team and if we deem it appropriate, we will share this to our blog site or any other places that may be of benefit to our audiences.
If you would like to run an initial topic by the team before you start writing, please do feel free to drop us an email and we can advise on the topic or angle you wish to take.
Equally, if you have any questions at all, please get in touch.
If you can support with any of the activities detailed below or can provide additional opportunities that are not listed, please get in touch with the Alumni Team who can liaise with you or your employer, as well as linking you with the Placement, Academic, and Careers and Employability Teams as necessary.
Provide work experience or placement opportunities for students at your place of work. These are invaluable for our students to gain experience in industry which supports their employability.
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Support our graduates by linking us with your employer or share your graduate vacancies with the Careers and Employability team which can be listed on our CareerLinc platform.
Supporting fellow alumni in progressing in their careers by contacting the Alumni Team with opportunities and vacancies for alumni with more than two years experience which can be listed on our alumni jobs board.
Sharing your experiences of the course content and the skills you developed whilst at university, as well as how it has supported your career means you can provide unique insights into our curriculum development and by extension can support future graduates in the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in their chosen careers. You can also go one step further and join our Industry Advisory Board which meets a few times a year and provides more structured feedback.
If you would like to share your insights or join the advisory board, please get in touch with the Alumni Team.