Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
The next big thing in social mobility: UpReach
With how competitive the field of law is, making the right impression with employers in the application process is extremely valuable. UpReach’s programme offers advice, extra knowledge and tips and tricks for applications and interviews so your CV looks good and therefore, employers will want to offer you the training contract or work experience you’re looking for. After a 100 no’s (which is expected in a growing graduate field) UpReach helps you secure that one yes which changes your complete career and life.
Additionally, by having the correct experiences listed on your CV, it pushes you and your application to stand out amongst the rest when you are able to write about the invaluable opportunities you have taken. UpReach is one of these.
After that brief introduction I know you will be wanting to click off and apply straight away but wait for the end because I have so much more to say! I promise I won’t keep you much longer.
I came across UpReach through Leeds Beckett’s advertisement on LinkedIn. I actually only just made the deadline as I wasn’t active on LinkedIn for a few days. Another tip of mine, create, update and network on your LinkedIn, most opportunities can be found on there! I applied for UpReach’s Law Spring-board programme. The programme’s aim is to help undergraduates from unrepresented backgrounds become employable in the legal sector. The programme was designed by a current worldwide law firm, Slaughter and May, also providing a great opportunity to grow connections with a top law firm and having an exclusive chance to apply for experiences within their firm.
The programme thus far, has been packed with video forums, practice tests, career courses and much more! As you go along with the programme your developments are tracked for you to keep up-to-date with your achievements, goals and next steps. You are given a personalised mentor who will help you on your journey through UpReach. This has been extremely helpful for me as I have been given the chance to have someone review and advise me on particular steps to help build my employability, including covering letters, CV’s and practice interviews.
Another feature I enjoy with UpReach, are the video forums they offer. I have attended multiple on various subjects, being commercial awareness, work experience, social media and more. The forums are engaging and there is always enough time for questions to be asked and answered. Participating in these has strengthened my skills and knowledge in various subject areas.
The benefits of the programme are that your weaknesses may have to be highlighted, but to then put into motion a tailored plan of goals and next steps for you to target and change the weaknesses into strengths. For example, in my personal journey I was struggling with confidence in general and how this was blocking access to opportunities. With the help of UpReach, I am now very vocal on LinkedIn, practice speaking on the phone (statistically shown to be a weakness amongst students), open to networking and I have been asking questions on video forums, which I used to be so shy to do! The little areas for improvement can seem so big when you have no alternative strategies for help and advice, luckily I had UpReach, and you can too!
The link below is for anyone wanting to apply to be an UpReach associate, which I advise you to do. The benefits that come from this opportunity are too good to pass on. The invaluable skills, knowledge and experience you gain, will allow you to surpass the thousand other students studying law. The change starts here… enjoy!
