More Than Work Month day 3

Cardiff Met offers a huge range of employability and careers service through the universities career office and UMAX provided by the Students’ Union. To promote these services, and NASES More Than Work Month, we are featuring 5 Cardiff Met students who balance their studies with a job

Chris Ellis is today’s featured student and he volunteers with Environmental Champions. Chris balances his project coordinator role within the organisation with studying for his 3^rd year of BSc Food Science Technology and running the Food Society at the university. As project coordinator, Chris is responsible for recruiting and liaising with new and existing students to get them on board with the initiatives as well as creating partnerships with other organisations. Chris highlighted the way in which volunteering has helped to build up his CV and allowed him the chance to network with other students, members of the community and the local authorities. Chris also said “volunteering can be really relaxing and rewarding, usually the work isn’t too hard and you get a real feel good factor when you see the difference you’re helping to make in the community”.

Chris gave his top tips for balancing commitments which were to “get a paper diary and take it everywhere and connect your emails to your phone. My top tip though, is to challenge yourself and try something new each week, you won’t progress if you don’t challenge yourself”. Chris also wanted to praise the UMAX services provided by the SU. “They’ve helped me to write up my CV and highlight the volunteering and key skills and I’ve also been on the employability workshops and completed the Cardiff Met Award. The best thing is that everything is free!”

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