People
Biomedical Science graduates buck national trend by stepping straight
into employment
Biomedical Science graduates are bucking the trend when it comes to
students having trouble finding jobs after their degrees.
With the University celebrating a bumper intake of new students this
term to its BSc Biomedical Science(BMS) programme, there was also cause
for celebration among students graduating this summer.
At a time when the current economic climate is having a knock-on
effect for graduates nationally experiencing tough times finding work,
many BMS students who graduated from the four-year course this summer
have already found work.
A Biomedical Science student
With the four-year course focusing on students completing their
registration portfolio for the Certificate of Competence during their
clinical placement year, it means they can leave university and step
immediately into a job as a fully-fledged biomedical scientist. Out of
the 26 graduates, 18 are already employed as biomedical scientists with
others undertaking further scientific training such as going into
Medicine/Dentistry degrees or enrolling onto PhD programmes.
Explained Dr Mücke Leithauser, Director of Biomedical Science: ‘The
strength of our courses is that they were designed in close
collaboration with biomedical scientists at a number of regional
hospitals who are also involved with delivering the programme.’
Graduate Leanne Gomm, who is now a biomedical scientist in the
Microbiology Department at Colchester General Hospital, where she also
did her clinical placement during her degree, said: ‘I think the course
at Essex was very much tailored towards getting a job, so it stood me in
good stead.’
Fellow graduate LeAnne Carmichael also got a job where she worked
during her clinical placement, in the Biochemistry Department at
Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.
LeAnne was also awarded the Institute of Biomedical Science
President’s Prize for best Biomedical Science degree at Essex. Like
Leanne, she thinks the course was essential in helping her get a job.
Chancellor’s charity work rewarded
The University’s Chancellor Lord Phillips of Sudbury has been given
an award in recognition of more than 40 years’ work in charity law.
He was awarded the Luke FitzHerbert Lifetime Achievement Award 2009
during the recent Third Sector Excellence Awards, hosted by Third Sector
magazine.
Lord Phillips accepting the Luke Fitzherbert Lifetime
Achievment Award 2009
Lord Phillips founded charity specialist law firm Bates Wells &
Braithwaite in 1970 and played a major part in debates during the
passage of the Charities Act 2006. Other charitable work he is involved
with include being on the Council for Charitable Support and being the
founder, now president, of the Citizenship Foundation.
At the awards ceremony, Lord Phillips honoured the many unsung heroes
working in the charity sector and said the world had changed since he
joined the legal profession in 1957. ‘One has to say that certain things
have gone for the worse,’ he said. ‘Against that, there are tens of
thousands of charities, many have no staff at all, and we know that they
do wonderful unsung work, often in the grottiest corners of society.’ He
added: ‘There is a creative anarchy that I love about the voluntary
sector. It is a life-enhancing quality - it brings the best out of
people.’
Essex engineer receives graduate award
A 2009 graduate from the School of Computer Science and Electronic
Engineering has been awarded a national scholarship to help fund further
study.
Andrew Ramsammy, who picked up a degree in Electronic Engineering
this summer, has received a Whitworth Scholarship Award from the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMECHE).
Andrew (centre) receiving his award
The award, for which competition is fierce, is intended to assist
those graduates who want to undertake further research and postgraduate
study.
Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:
- Dr Maria Fasli takes over as new head of School
- New lecturer joins Centre
- Law article among 'most influential'
- Corporate champions
