Westminster has been awarded #1 in the UK University and Educator Awards by Forage, featuring the UK's top 30 universities for work-based learning. The University has achieved an overall 91.8 score, and been recognised for the Work-Based and Placement Learning Project (WBPL), the University-Wide Electives, and the Westminster Employability Awards.
Forage is an open access platform that provides virtual work placements for students. Their UK University and Educator Awards is aimed to honour the top UK institutions that are finding innovative ways to set their students up for success in the workforce.
WBPL focuses on embedding work based and placement learning initiatives into the undergraduate curriculum to ensure that all students gain valuable employability skills alongside their studies.
WBPL is being rolled out across the University’s undergraduate curriculum, where the aim is for all Westminster students to complete a minimum of 35 hours of work-based and placement learning. This provides an opportunity for students to increase their confidence, gain key employability skills, and be more likely to secure highly skilled graduate level positions.
Talking about the success of WBPL, Project Manager Benjamin Powell said: “Very proud to have been involved in this initiative and for so many of our students to have engaged in the Forage opportunities. The fact that we have been awarded the UK winner has been quite an achievement.
Thousands of students have engaged with the Forage virtual internships from the University over the last couple of years as part of the roll out of the Work Based and Placement Learning Project, experiencing a range of employability challenges from real employers across a range of sectors, gaining new employability skills. Thank you so much to the many people who were involved in making this possible.”
The University was also highlighted for its University-wide electives, which are credit-bearing modules providing students to expand their professional skills and career development; and for the Westminster Employability Award that recognises the extra-curricular activities students complete during their time at the University.
Find out more about our Work experience and placements, and visit the WBPL Project page on Engage.
