Have you found that you want all your notes including documents or PDFs all in one place? Well with OneNote, this is possible! As well as being a great space to store your personal notes, did you know that you can insert file printouts including PDFs and Word pages to go alongside your notes? Watch the video below to learn how to insert file printouts!
Our second Employer Profile is with Clicky Media based across the UK. One of the essential digital skills that Clicky Media values is proficiency with LinkedIn. View some resources below to learn how to better engage with LinkedIn and how to create an appealing profile:
Assistant roles in a specifical service area of digital marketing:
Search engine optimisation
Paid ads
Paid social
Digital PR
Essential Digital Skills We Value: Digital Learning – Proactive engagement in learning new software. For example, taking Google exams for entry level digital skills and exams in Google analytics or paid search software. Digital Identity – Proficiency with LinkedIn and using it to engage with and communicate with the wider industry. Digital Creation – Experience in setting up a website.
What does a day in the life look like for one of your assistant roles?: “It would depend on the department but the general structure of one of our assistant roles is you would have work briefed to you from thee wider team and then support the senior team with the work for clients. So it could be anything from pulling research from different platforms, to helping with a presentation for client strategy.”
What are the personal attributes do you look for in a new employee?: “A bit of drive and tenacity, someone wo wants to come into the business and drive change and then will deliver on those goals. Having commercial awareness is great but really someone who knows what they want and have the drive to achieve it is what we look for.”
How important is social media use in marketing?: “LinkedIn is such a big thing in our sector so being able to use it, that is really useful. We have a paid social media team so although we don’t do anything organically, having knowledge of certain platforms like Meta or TikTok and how people use those can e really useful from a client delivery perspective”
Are there any common digital skills weaknesses in graduates?: “Literacy with excel and getting up to speed with specific platforms mostly. Graduates tend t either note be able to pick up new systems at speed or there are those that are really literate with the platforms, but they want to do everything too fast, and they end up cutting corners, so it is about finding a balance between the two really”
As part of Aberystwyth University’s extended induction, next week is AberSkills week! There are several events running, you can view all events being held on the AberSkills site but the Digital Skills team are a part of three sessions! These are:
Everyday AI Tools: Presented by Jisc’s Senior AI Specialist Paddy Shepperd, this session will consider the practical use of AI in daily tasks, focusing on productivity-enhancing tools like Microsoft Copilot, Google Docs, and ChatGPT. We will look at AI’s role in education through applications such as Bodyswaps and Anywize and discuss how these can be integrated into learning strategies to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and overall productivity.
Getting Started with LinkedIn Learning: During this session, we will demonstrate how to:
Navigate the platform and search for relevant content
Display certificates for completed courses and your personal LinkedIn profile
Group content based on a particular topic, or content you want to watch at another time, as personal collections
New features recently added to LinkedIn Learning
Digital Skills Workshop: Hands-on experience for new international students here in Aber on the systems that you will use (e.g. Blackboard, Panopto, Turnitin, Student Record, Primo, etc) and some external systems also (e.g. Office 365 software like Word, PowerPoint, LinkedIn Learning etc).
You can book all sessions through the AberSkills site, you can also view all recordings and resources from the 2023 Digital Skills Festival.
Our first Employer Profile is with Arad Goch Theatre Company based in Aberystwyth. One of the essential digital skills that Arad Goch values most is the use of Microsoft software. You can view curated collections on LinkedIn Learning for Microsoft Software below:
Company Size: 8 permanent staff but up to 20 with temporary contracts
Founded: 1989
Where is the company based: Aberystwyth
Examples of typical graduate roles:
Technicians
Actors
Schools liaison Officer
Admin Assistant
Marketing Officer
Essential Digital Skills We Value: Digital Proficiency – Use of Microsoft software, SAGE payroll software for finance, software programmes for running production lighting, sound etc. Digital Creativity – Adobe photoshop for leaflets and poster, website design and updates, video editing software Digital Communication – Emails and video calls
How important is social media in the business?: “It comes into a lot of our roles. Everything is by email now but the marketing officers would need to promote our events in the medium of Welsh across all of our social media. Most of our marketing is done through social media now.”
What is your biggest advise to someone tying to get into your industry?: “Experience! I know it is a bit of a catch-22 because you can not get a job without getting the experience but just getting that experience, even volunteering, really gets your foot in the door, then the world is your oyster!”
Do you think that people overlook the importance of digital skills in creative industries?: “Yes, it’s a very important part of our industry. Showing what goes on behind the scene is a good way of getting the message out there and so for example, we make videos of the productions to get people interested. So skills in say digital marketing are critical for us.”
What are you not seeing enough of in terms of these digital skills?: “Technicians are very few and far between so finding people for those roles is quite tricky. There doesn’t seem to be many people around wth lots of marketing experience either.”
If you need to deliver a presentation within a strict time limit, you may want to practice to get your timings perfect. With DigiTip 39, you can learn how to practice your presentation and receive the timings you used per slide. View the short clip below to learn how to rehearse:
This week our seven-week series of Employer Digital Skills Profiles will begin. Similar to the Graduate Profile Series that we released last year, the Employer Profile series is a set of profiles from a variety of employers to help see what digital skills are essential and valued across varying professions. A new profile will be released every Thursday at 11:30 starting this week with the theatre company Arad Goch! Make sure to tune in to read the new profiles and you can go back and read our Graduate Digital Skills Profiles Series here.
Have you ever gotten stuck trying to think of a different word to take your sentence to the next level? There’s no need to struggle anymore! With DigiTip 37, learn how to use the synonyms function in Word. View step by step instructions below or watch the short video to learn more!
Simply:
Right click on the chosen word
Hover over ‘synonyms’
Select a new word!
Still not seeing an appropriate word? Select thesaurus and view more!
In September 2023, we launched the new ‘IS Digital Essentials for teaching’ Blackboard site. The site is a culmination of resources from Information Services that any new academic staff member might need. This includes a checklist for everything you need to complete before you begin teaching as well as information and access to resources you could currently need, or you may want to digitally enhance your teaching.
This is a reminder to all academic staff that the Blackboard site is still available to support any new or existing staff. View the Blackboard site to learn more.
If you have any questions or if you’re having trouble accessing the course. Please contact us at: digi@aber.ac.uk
Next week will be the return of DigiTips, our once-a-week tip or trick to help you with your Digital Skills! You can view the DigiTips that were posted last year here and find out which 5 were the most popular in this blogpost. Remember to keep your eyes out for this year’s DigiTips by subscribing to the blog!
