Staff to receive careers advice

The University of Central Lancashire is extending its student careers advice service to offer jobs guidance to its own staff.

Ian Rankin, the head of the careers service, was at pains to reassure The Times Higher that there was no hidden agenda to encourage some staff to leave the university for jobs elsewhere.

"We want to make the best use of the talent we have by encouraging them to apply for jobs here," he said.

The human resources department, Mr Rankin added, had backed the move to help improve the quality of employees' internal applications for new positions.

"They are saying that staff could be making a better job of their applications and that people are not performing as well as they could at interview."

The careers service piloted a staff advice project last year in an effort to educate employees so that they would promote the service to students. The teaching and learning career development project for staff was so successful that the human resources department agreed to fund the service for a year.

So far most users have been administrative staff seeking to make use of the degree courses that they have been studying for on a part-time basis, Mr Rankin said.