cJAM Industrywide

cJAM Industrywide

THIS PAGE IS FOR INDUSTRY REGISTRATIONS ONLY

cJAM enables our talented students to meet face-to-face with senior industry professionals, to share ideas, make connections and pitch for opportunities.

This is a free full-day event (9.30am until 4.30pm) and we would be delighted if you would consider joining us for the full day - it presents a fantastic opportunity to meet the talent of the future as well as other senior industry professionals.

The event includes:

• Networking breakfast • Keynote speakers • Industry Q&A panel • Networking lunch • Speed pitching • Awarding of opportunities

cJAM is unique to UCLan and is designed for our students to share their skill sets, ambitions and creative ideas with employers who are looking to spot and nurture new talent. Our students know what sparks interest in young audiences, and we want them to pitch their ideas and themselves to you in exchange for an opportunity that will help them to progress their career ambitions.

The opportunities can include:

• PLACEMENTS - ideally lasting up to one week if unpaid or longer if paid

• SHADOWING - a day experiencing your working environment where they can connect with your colleagues or clients

• MENTORING - up to three one-hour online sessions or face-to-face meetings to give them support and inspiration to progress their career. This could include giving feedback on their university work or introducing them to one of your contacts

• TRAINING – so that they are eligible for paid work with you

• INTERVIEWS - for a placement or job

As an industry professional, you will play an integral role in the event. For the two-hour speed pitching session, where you will get to meet 1:1 with up to twelve students, it would be fantastic if you can come with the offer of at least one work placement ideally lasting one week or one of the other opportunities listed above. At the event, you get to judge the student pitches and award your opportunity to the students who impress you the most.

Over the last three years of cJAM events, our students have secured more than 1,000 opportunities with a range of employers including Curious Minds, Lancashire Teaching Hospital's Charity, Catholic Teaching Alliance, Edunion UK and Human Appeal. To get a little taster of the cJAM event format, look at the videos from past cJAM events which are added to this Eventbrite page.

It is so important that our students understand the pace of change within the sector they want to work in, how digital technology is affecting the industry, and the best career opportunities open to them. Through accepting our invitation to cJAM, you will help enormously in achieving this.

After you have registered, we will need your potted career history and a photo of you. This is so you are included in the A-Z booklet of industry professionals. Students receive this digitally in advance of cJAM to help them prepare and hard copies are printed for circulation on the day of the event. The photo should be a mid-shot of yourself (head and shoulders) and the bio 100 words max, written in third person. The A-Z will also include the social media links you provide when registering.

FAQs

UNITEplus funding: Your company might be eligible for funding from UNITEplus. This means you can give a 140-hour paid placement to UCLan students at zero cost to you. For further information and verification go to the UNITEplus website or contact Amine Melaine at: [email protected] or 01772 894097. The eligibility criteria are as follows:

- Have business premises from which the student can work

- Based in Lancashire

- Majority of revenue must come from Business to Business sales

- Employ 250 employees or less.

Which students are attending this cJAM?: This event is for final year undergraduate and postgraduate UCLan students studying a subject in the School of Humanities, Language and Global Studies.

Free parking: You can request a parking space when registering. If this applies, use the University’s Victoria car park (sat nav: Victoria Street, PR1 7AY). The Media Factory is a two-minute walk from the car park.

Public transport: The Media Factory is a 15-minute walk from Preston Train Station. For more information, please see the campus map.

Free event: There is no cost to attend this event and breakfast, lunch and refreshments throughout the day will be provided.

Late arrival or early departure: This is a full-day event and for the event to work successfully we would appreciate your presence from 9.30am until 4.30pm. If this isn’t possible, please let us know in the specific requirements section when registering.

Event running order: The event starts with a networking breakfast at 9.30am. During this time the students will firstly be booking speed pitching slots and then looking for who they can network with. Academic staff will also be present to encourage students to step out of their comfort zone to speak to you. By 10am everybody will be seated ready for the event compere to officially welcome everyone to the event. As an industry professional, you will have a named seat at the front in the ‘stage’ area. The compere will facilitate a speedy pass-the-mic introduction where you can state who you are, which company you are representing and what opportunities you might offer (20 second max). Up to five industry professionals will then give keynote addresses, where they have eight minutes each to share their personal career journeys – focusing on any highlights, top tips and lessons learnt. There will then be a short break and following that will be the Q&A. You will be on the industry panel and need to be open to taking questions from the students. Following the Q&A, it’s time for the networking lunch in an adjacent room where students will be looking to network with you again. After lunch, you will return to the main event space. The room will be set up for the speed pitching session, with numbered pitching stations positioned around the periphery. The number of your pitching station will be on your name badge.

Speed pitching logistics: The speed pitching part of the event lasts for two hours (with a 5-minute comfort break halfway in) with 12 pitching slots A-L, each lasting just eight minutes. Each industry professional will be seated at a numbered pitching station (a small table with a chair at either side). On the table will be 12 sheets of paper listing which students have booked to see you – this is so you can make organised notes about each student you see. There's a definite fun speed dating feel, with a siren starting and ending each slot. When the siren for slot A sounds, it’s time for the first student to take a seat at your station and get the conversation started by introducing themselves with a 60-second elevator pitch. Some students might show you visuals of their creative work or leave you a copy of their CV, some will be confident, and some will be nervous. To keep the conversation flowing and to get the best out of the students, please have a set of questions that you can dip into. Once the eight minutes in slot A is up, the end siren sounds and it’s time for the student to leave your pitching station to give you a minute to complete your notes in private. Then the siren for slot B will sound and it’s time for the next student to take a seat, and so on, until you get to the end of slot L when you have seen all 12 students. There will be a Student Ambassador assigned to your pitching station to ensure things run smoothly.

Decision making and presentation: As soon as the speed pitching session ends, the Student Ambassador assigned to you will guide you to an adjacent room along with all the other industry professionals. The Student Ambassador will ask you to make your decisions on who you want to offer what to by recording the outcomes on the note paper provided. Once completed, these get whipped away to a behind the scenes location to enable speedy completion of award cards that will be presented to the students. At this point you will be guided back into the main room ready for the start of the celebratory awards ceremony. Each industry professional will be called up to the ‘stage’ area one at a time so that the names of the students they have awarded an opportunity to can be announced. The students will join you on stage – expect handshaking, photography, and lots of smiles.

Types of opportunities you can award: You don’t have to choose just one student to award an opportunity to. You can award multiple students an opportunity. It can be the same offer for each student, or something different for each. It would be fantastic if you could award a one-week placement (maximum of two weeks if unpaid or can be longer if paid). Or any of the following would also be super: shadowing, mentoring, training, or an interview for a job or paid placement.

Progressing the opportunities that you award: The students will be emailed a few days following the event to confirm details about what opportunities you have awarded them. This information is taken from the decision notes you completed on the day of the event. The students will also be given your email address and asked to contact you to firm up arrangements. We will also email you with the details we have provided students, along with their email address and mobile number. If you have awarded a placement or job shadowing opportunity, you will be required to complete an online Placement Provider Agreement. The link to this will be in the email.

Filming and photography permissions: There will be photography and filming throughout the event. During the online registration process, you will be asked to give your permission for filming and photography of you to be used by the University for marketing purposes including (but not limited to) University websites, on and offline publications, public relations messages and other advertising, such as social media, brochures, information leaflets, adverts, posters and other formats to promote the University and to promote University courses at its partner institutions.

Event hashtag: #UCLancJAM

General enquiries: Tania Callagher, [email protected] 01772 894106 or 07817 635045.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Creative Innovation Zone, Media Factory, ME414, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom