How can I improve my employability over the summer?

So, you haven’t got a placement to keep you busy this summer, but still want to gain work experience?

There are several online options you can look at to show future employers that you are keen to learn, hard working and take initiative.

Doing online courses and experiences is flexible and can fit around your work, family and social commitments.

Forage

Forage work experience flyer

Forage has partnered with over 125 employers to create online courses and job simulations that test your knowledge, develop your skills and give you real work experience, making you a more attractive candidate.

Our dedicated landing page showcases a curated selection of courses tailored to our students’ interests and career goals. These cover key areas including technology, software and cybersecurity, product design, manufacturing and supply chain, data science, energy and sustainability, aviation, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence and robotics. It also features resources to build your confidence, sharpen interview techniques, and develop essential professional skills.

This summer, Forage and Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science are awarding a Professional Development Award certificate to SEMS students who complete at least five job simulations over the summer, before Monday 22nd September. You must set up your profile via the SEMS Dashboard so we can track your progress.

Mathworks

Mathworks is the company that makes some of the main software you’ll use during your course, most notably MATLAB. On their website, you’ll find free self-led courses on MATLAB – from absolute beginner to more advanced levels.

Completing these courses will enhance your academic performance and highlight your initiative to your lecturers. You can also showcase these achievements on your CV and LinkedIn profile, helping potential employers to recognise your proactive approach.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning has a huge range of online courses for any profession you could imagine.

A simple search for ‘Engineering’ results in courses related to Operations Management, AI, Electronics Engineering, Mechanics, Automations, Data, Sustainability, CAD and more.

Anyone with a Queen Mary email account can access the whole library through Queen Mary’s paid subscription. Browse the library via the button on the LinkedIn page of the Queen Mary website.

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft’s free learning platform teaches you to use their tools proficiently, including those which work with semantic models and data visualisations.

You can explore courses tailored to specific careers – like Developer, Data Analyst, or Engineering roles – or simply browse titles that spark your interest.

IBM Skills Build

This platform from the world-leading technology company offers courses on AI, Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, Data Science and Cloud Computing, specifically targeted at university students wanting to hone their knowledge for future employment. The courses are industry-recognised and free to complete.

Coursera

Coursera features a selection of courses from universities and organisations such as Stanford, MathWorks, IBM, Meta, Google and Amazon.

The courses can be as short as 6 hours in length, while others may last for 2 – 4 months and require at least a full day’s work per week.

There’s likely to be some crossover with other platforms like edX, so it’s worth looking around for the best course, and the best deal.

Many of these courses are free, but Coursera Plus is a subscription-based platform. You could get a 7-day trial for free, complete your course, and then cancel it.

edX

edX provides a whole range of courses from different reputable universities and organisations around the world, such as Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), IBM, the University of Adelaide and the Technical University of Munich.

You’ll need to filter by ‘course’ to find programmes you can complete over the summer, as many edX courses are specifically designed to help people prepare for an undergraduate degree or progress to masters level, and some are accredited professional certificates – all of which take several months to complete. By using the filters, you’ll be able to find the shorter courses which you can complete over the course of a few days or weeks.

You do have to pay, but they often have discount codes, especially when you first sign up.

There may be some crossover with other courses offered on Coursera and IBM, so check all the platforms for the best course and the best deal.

Take a look at the edX Engineering courses.

QMPlus

If you’ve spent any time at Queen Mary, you’re definitely familiar with QMPlus. Beyond hosting your course documents and information, QMPlus also features a dedicated student training and development area, where you can explore a range of courses on topics such as:

  • Solidworks software training
  • Labworks software introduction
  • Help Engineers Learn Mathematics – 50 workbooks covering all the maths you’ll come across during your undergraduate engineering programme, plus workbooks on Python software.
  • Preparing for online exams.