Design Your UTS

Descriptive transcript

Hi guys! Welcome back to the UTS Student Hacks podcast. Today we have an additional episode delving into the Design Your UTS workshop.

My name is Roxanne and I study Medical Science and International Studies, in my fourth year, majoring in Japan. And here we have—

Kelly! I'm going into my fourth year as well, studying Law and Business, majoring in Accounting.

Before we get right into it, get some water, fruit, maybe some snacks to accompany you throughout this podcast.

So Kelly, what is the Design Your UTS workshop?

Great question, Roxanne. So the Design Your UTS workshop is run by UTS Careers, which is a UTS service that specifically helps you advance your employability skills. And this is one of the workshops that they run.

Design Your UTS workshop focuses on what kind of UTS experience you want to have. Are you a social butterfly, are you looking for networking opportunities to meet people, or just simply join fun activities? Or do you want to focus on studying and reduce the amount of distractions around you to help you focus on academics? Or are you looking forward towards your career, or maybe even starting your own startup? Literally, whatever your plan is, Design Your UTS workshop can help you.

There are two types of workshops that the Design Your UTS workshop holds: a formal workshop and an informal workshop. Roxanne had the pleasure of attending the formal workshop. So Roxanne, take it away!

Yeah! So for the formal workshop, it was during orientation with first years, and me being a fourth year was a very daunting experience because I've been here for three years. For the workshop, one of the activities that we did was a mind map. It was a big circle that had work, social, health, and another bubble that I can't really remember right now. Then we had smaller bubbles associated to that, and then different ways that we can achieve it. So it helped with prioritising what you would want to do at uni. Looking back as a fourth year, it was quite an interesting activity to do, essentially, because I didn't know how much I grew as a person or changed until I did the activity. And I was like, oh, I knew where to go with my degree a little bit, at least.

It helps you visualise it, like a mood board.

Yeah, it definitely helped visualise everything that I've experienced so far. And it was interesting to also see how everyone else experienced it, especially amongst first years. Everybody came from different perspectives, different priorities. So it was a very interesting take.

Well, the workshop I went to was informal. So you can just drop in and see what the workshop has to offer. The one activity that I did for that informal workshop was this dashboard—kind of like a dashboard you would see on a car, where you see how much fuel you have or how much you have left, things like that. But instead of fuel, it looked at elements such as work, social, and other factors that could influence our uni experience.

I really liked this workshop, this particular activity in fact, since it visualised what I prioritise the most, and what I probably should invest more time in. From that, I can try and achieve my goals, whether it be getting a HD or, career-wise, employability, and seeing how small changes can take me places.

Do you think the workshop helped you, especially looking back now if you were back in first year?

Yeah, it did. My priorities have really changed, have really shifted from first year. First year was like purely academics—okay, maybe not purely academics, but I put a lot of emphasis on the type of grades and marks I would get. But that has definitely shifted to really just enjoying uni life and seeing what uni has to offer. Because it is an experience, and I want to be there for it.

If you want to attend one of these Design Your UTS workshops, they're currently being held in Building 2, Level 4 at the Student Learning Hub. So drop on by, take a look at it. And if you complete the workshop, you might be put into a draw to win a prize. So that's always a plus.

Thanks for listening! If you want to check out any of our previous episodes, they are on our website and other sites like Spotify. And don't forget to join us on our next podcast on settling in and joining our community. Until next time.

See ya!