One city. Two universities. One creative collaboration turning careers work into something students actually want to show up to. GIFs included.
Lockdown, 2020. Two Career Consultants on either side of the same city — Ben at Leeds Beckett, Marc at the University of Leeds — realised something obvious that the sector had spent years pretending wasn't obvious. Students in Leeds don't care whose logo is on the slides. They care whether the session is useful.
So we started delivering joint online sessions. Both cohorts invited. Both practitioners on the call. A shared audience getting something better than either of us could deliver alone. It was supposed to be a lockdown experiment.
It's still going.
Every session is built on the same recipe: topical career theory delivered in a seminar-style, GIF-heavy, pop-culture-referencing conversation between the two of us — with the audience folded in from the first slide. No lectures. No monologues. No death-by-PowerPoint.
The bar we set ourselves: if we're asking students to be agile, creative and adaptable in a post-pandemic world of work, we should probably show up like that ourselves. So the delivery style became part of the point.
The feedback has ranged from "very insightful" to the unimprovable "hilariously intuitive" — which is about the best sentence we could hope for.
A running series of joint webinars, each one a stand-alone session on a specific angle of career development — delivered live to students from both universities.
How curiosity — and failure — shape your career development, why you make your own luck, and how to see opportunity everywhere. Interactive, informal, and encouraging of curious minds.
Job leads for Leeds. Insights into the city's thriving economy — 6,000 SMEs, Channel 4, BBC, Sky arrivals, one of the UK's most diverse economies — and how to build a career on your own doorstep.
The importance of creative action in career development. Why curiosity is your superpower, and how to feel more confident giving things a go in an uncertain, complex world of work.
Real jobs of the future, the accelerated change reshaping industry 4.0, the skills that will actually matter, and how to keep up — including labour market insights and commercial awareness.
Breaking down the "there are no jobs" narrative and the myth that you have to work in something related to your degree. Strategies for navigating career opportunities, even in a pandemic.
Making the most of a gap year in a post-pandemic world. Career myth-busting, decision making for the 21st century, and why a gap year isn't just about travelling.
Turning what you've done into transferable skills. Why 82% of graduate employers recruit from any degree, and how to articulate the skills you've built through jobs, hobbies and your degree.
Reframing networking as simply "asking for directions." Why it's the foundation of career success, how to use LinkedIn, practical tips on informational interviews — and lots of GIFs.
Why job searching is more than waiting on updated job boards. Agile thinking, innovation, self-motivation and resilience — not just for the role you land, but for the hunt itself.
The Leeds Untied take on CVs — practical advice, structured guidance, and the odd GIF, all delivered in the usual conversational style. Because writing a CV shouldn't feel like filling in a tax return.
Published article setting out the Leeds Untied collaboration model, making the case for city-wide careers support as a template for other UK university cities.
Presented the model to the wider UK careers community at the sector's main annual gathering — sharing what worked, what didn't, and what other cities could learn from it.
Delivered "Lessons from a Hybrid Teaching World" at the University of Leeds Student Education Conference — reflecting on what the collaboration revealed about hybrid careers delivery.
Extended the Leeds Untied approach beyond the two universities through work with Student Circus on interview prep resources for students across the sector.
A podcast series exploring careers, chaos, and everything the sessions couldn't quite fit in. Listen on Spotify →
Happy to talk about how the model worked, what we'd do differently, and how similar collaborations could work in other UK cities.