n campus Get up and running Your guide to setting up a student community www.theiet.org/oncampus
Contents 3 What is an On Campus student community? 3 What sort of activities will the IET support? 4 What s in it for me? 5 Case study - On Campus at the University of Kent 6 Case study - On Campus in Malaysia The IET supports young engineers and technicians from around the world. Establishing an IET On Campus student community builds a strong link between the IET and students, helping you to get the most out of your membership and your university experience as well as enabling us to place young people at the heart of our professional activities and development plans for the future. 7 Tools and resources to support your community 7 Funding 8 Criteria for having an On Campus student community 9 Steps to getting started 10 Put yourself on the map 2 Your guide to setting up a student community
What is an On Campus student community? The easiest way to engage with the IET throughout your time at university or college is to start a student community. IET On Campus student communities are groups of IET members with a desire to deliver a range of activities for engineering students in their university or college. The IET can provide some funding for your student community as well as access to resources and ideas to help you devise and deliver activities. This includes connections to an international network of engineers and technicians who can help you learn new skills in readiness for job seeking and professional development outside study. While there is plenty of best practice that can be shared to help get new groups started, the IET recognises that no two IET On Campus student communities will be the same. Some IET groups partner with existing engineering societies, bringing some additional resources and sharing expertise. Other student communities work within the university but with the support of a nearby IET Local Network that is well established, while some are completely independent student communities. What sort of activities will the IET support? We encourage all IET communities, whether a local, technical or student community to deliver activities that: enable knowledge sharing provide networking and professional development opportunities highlight the importance of engineering and technology raise awareness and encourage membership of the IET are free to attend and open to non-members as well as members of the IET. IET On Campus student communities typically offer a mix of activities, ranging from social events to engage with students, visits to engineering companies and local sites of interest, lectures and seminars with speakers from industry, soft skills training sessions, competitions and prize giving ceremonies as well as essential membership recruitment events. Being a member of the IET has opened more doors for me than I thought possible. Ever since I attended a Local Network event as a student, I haven t looked back. It really is a case of the more involved you are, the more you get out. Rob Edmunds MEng (Hons) CLAD CEng MIET www.theiet.org/oncampus 3
What s in it for me? Becoming a member of the IET and starting or joining an existing On Campus student community gives you access to a comprehensive range of products and support services specifically developed to meet all your professional needs. Put simply, actively engaging with the IET throughout your time at university or college can help make you more employable, perform better and raise your professional profile. Benefits include: developing new skills and improving your curriculum vitae (CV) through volunteering; whether as an active volunteer for your On Campus community or through one of the many roles the IET can offer students and young engineers. You ll have the opportunity to set the agenda, whilst developing and learning new skills of your own; skills which will help you in your degree, enhance your CV and improve your ability to do your job. Visit the IET s Volunteer Gateway for more information. www.theiet.org/volunteers raising your profile within your university as a student community leader, you ll be delivering activities to help your peers develop their skills and make new friends. demonstrating your commitment to engineering and professional development membership of the IET is a clear demonstration of your competence and commitment to professional standards. www.theiet.org/membership building your professional network you ll have the opportunity to connect with over 167,000 engineers and technicians from around the world via the IET s online community designed for engineers the Engineering Communities platform. communities.theiet.org helping to improve your presentation skills via hosting or participating in the IET s Present around the World competition, with the opportunity to win prizes and travel. www.theiet.org/patw access to the IET s extensive knowledge resources journals, books, magazines, filmed content, events, IET Library and Archives as well as access to a global repository of science, engineering and technology content - the IET Digital Library. www.theiet.org/resources study and career development a wide range of resources to help you while studying, looking for employment and building your competence in your early career, including access to Career Manager, the IET s online professional development system. www.theiet.org/students www.theiet.org/career-manager the opportunity to apply for IET Awards including travel awards, undergraduate grants and postgraduate scholarships as well as a range of IET awards and prizes. www.theiet.org/awards 4 Your guide to setting up a student community
Case study On Campus at the University of Kent At the University of Kent, a request came in for a new IET On Campus student community via two existing engineering societies - the Engineering Society and TinkerSoc. The contact from the students coincided with the Local Network in Kent asking for help to connect with the university. This gave us a timely opportunity to bring students, university staff and Local Network volunteers together to consider how the On Campus community could be created to suit everyone. The societies use the On Campus activity to raise attention of their individual groups as well as cross-promoting their activities in the university resulting in some students becoming members of both. The Engineering Society was keen to provide opportunities for students to meet representatives from engineering companies and the TinkerSoc group was looking for ways to find out more about practical electrical engineering developments and to take part in challenges. Through its Local Network in Kent, the IET has helped with both of these aims. On Campus at the University of Kent is now going from strength to strength. The students have formed a committee which develop an annual event plan - some events will be run independently by the students, others will be run in partnership with the Local Network, like the inaugural Lifeskills workshop on CV preparation. The On Campus community continue to look at opportunities such as the university Summer Lecture event and preparing for Freshers Week in September. To keep the relationship strong, one of the students is active on the Kent Local Network committee too. Image: University of Kent IET On Campus student committee www.theiet.org/oncampus 5
Case study On Campus in Malaysia There are 17 IET On Campus student communities at universities all over Malaysia, they are connected through the Young Professionals Section of the Malaysia Local Network. Each of the communities delivers a varied programme of activities throughout the year. They balance events that are designed to help them with their studies, like technical visits and lectures, with others that have the fun factor, including team building events to strengthen bonds between the student leaders. The communities run recruitment events to help them find new volunteers to join their groups as well as raising awareness of the IET and encouraging more students to become members. Students account for 25% of the total IET membership in Malaysia. The work of the student volunteers and communities is recognised by the Young Professionals Section through a series of awards which motivate and encourage them. With so many On Campus student communities taking part, the Malaysia Present around the World final is a major event. Previously, the event has taken place in Kuala Lumpur and brought together 120 guests most of them student members of the IET and the generous sponsors who helped make the event such a success. Image: IET Young Professionals Section of the Malaysia Local Network: technical visit to Hong Kong. 6 Your guide to setting up a student community
Tools and resources to support your community The IET provides a range of best practice advice and guidance to help you deliver successful events and activities in your university, this information is available via the IET Volunteer Gateway on the website. www.theiet.org/volunteers The IET s Engineering Communities platform has an area dedicated to students that you can participate in, which enables you to start and join discussions with your peers from around the world. Your community can share experiences and learn from others in this unique online environment. www.theiet.org/student-zone In addition, there are a number of self-service tools that you can use to help you organise and promote your activities. There is an online registration system which can help you keep track of delegate numbers and seek feedback on your events afterwards. The IET also provides access to a full range of branded promotional items, including literature and banners to help you raise awareness of the IET at your events and branded templates to help you create posters and flyers to advertise your events. These are available from the IET s online marketing toolkit. Additionally, you can email oncampus@theiet.org and request an On Campus Freshers Fair/ Activity pack to help you with your events. Once your application is successful you will be given full details of all the tools and resources available to support your activities and how to access them. Funding The IET has five Communities Committees, these are the governing bodies which are responsible for communities activity around the world. Depending on which global region you are located in, your application for funding will be forwarded to the relevant committee for assessment, and, if approved, they will allocate funds to support your new On Campus student community. They will also connect you with other communities in your area that can provide advice and support. The majority of our existing IET On Campus student communities work closely with their university to secure the use of facilities free-of-charge. Many student communities also proactively seek to secure funding or sponsorship from local engineering companies. The IET is able to offer some funding every year to each On Campus student community, providing you meet and maintain the criteria outlined on page 8. www.theiet.org/oncampus 7
Criteria for having an On Campus student community 1 review the existing engineering societies at your university. If there is a group that the IET could partner with, it is probably better to collaborate with them and become a joint group. In return for co-branding activities you would be able to contribute some IET resources to help the group develop its activities 2 create a leadership committee to be responsible for your community drawn from IET members in different years of study to ensure strong succession. You should identify a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer as well as some ordinary members 3 gain the support of a named member of academic staff or a faculty member 4 identify a representative of your committee to take responsibility for connecting your community to the IET via the IET s online On Campus admin group 5 deliver a minimum of three events per year specifically designed to help promote IET membership and raise awareness of the IET s products and services that are of benefit to students. This can include a presence at a Freshers Fair, or similar event 6 adopt the IET On Campus branding in addition to any existing society name that you partner with 7 connect with the relevant Communities Committee that is responsible for all IET communities activity in the area 8 report metrics after your activities, giving information about the number of people who attended each activity and how many of them were members of the IET. Over time, it is expected that student members of the IET at your university should increase as a result of your activities 9 share other information in the form of images and best practice via the IET s On Campus Facebook page (facebook.com/ietmoreenergy), online student community and On Campus discussion streams. 8 Your guide to setting up a student community
Steps to getting started 1 ensure you are able to comply with the criteria for setting up a new student community (page 8) 2 consider what kind of activities you want to deliver and whether you need funding or support to succeed. It might be an idea to start small and build up your experience and confidence as you go along 3 contact the university, are they supportive of your plans? Can they offer facilities free-of-charge to your community or give you access to the internal communications channels to promote your activities? They may be able to offer or match funding 4 when you are ready, complete the setting up a community application form (online at http://www. theiet.org/volunteers/active/resources/apply-funding. cfm) and send it to the IET Communities team at: oncampus@theiet.org who will pass it on to the relevant Communities Committee for assessment. The staff team can also give you advice on your plans and when your application is successful they can help you access the tools and resources 5 when you are up and running, make sure your events are promoted as widely as possible throughout your university. Use the IET s branded templates to raise awareness of your community and your activities. You can list your event on the IET website and join the online student community to share your experiences before, during and after 6 ensure you have enough IET material to display at your events. There are banners, slides and promotional films that you can use to start and end your activities as well as leaflets giving more information about membership and the range of products and services that the IET can offer students 7 after your events, share feedback about how successful it was, use the online student community to review your event, upload images, and start a discussion, or write a blog to share your experiences with others 8 send delegate metrics back to the IET Communities team at oncampus@theiet.org so the IET can see how your activity is contributing to its strategic aims and objectives. The IET needs to know how many people attended your event in total and how many of these were IET members. www.theiet.org/oncampus 9
Put yourself on the map n campus Think about what activities you want to do and what funding you may require. Check support available from university Find some other students to join you maybe an existing engineering society? Is your committee made up of IET members? YES NO Apply for IET membership Do you meet the IET s On Campus community criteria? YES NO Contact Community Support team for some advice and guidance 10 Your guide to setting up a student community
Complete the IET setting up a community application form and submit for approval. Application approved? NO Contact staff team for advice and guidance YES Contact staff team for training and access to tools and resources to support your community Make contact and share your plans, identify ways to work together YES Is there a Local Network nearby that you can work with? NO Deliver your activities Promote event using available tools and channels as discussed with Communities team; order event materials (banners, leaflets etc.) Share event feedback via MyCommunity to highlight successes Want to find out more? If you have any further questions or feel you are ready to get started then email us: oncampus@theiet.org Send attendance metrics to Communities team www.theiet.org/oncampus 11
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