If you started your studies before September 2021, you have the opportunity to gain recognition for verifiable extracurricular activities within the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR), in addition to reflecting upon and recording these within your mySkills portfolio. Details of the eligible activities can be found in the online HEAR Activities Database.
If you started your undergraduate studies after September 2021, or if you are a postgraduate student, you will record your extracurricular activities and experiences in your mySkills portfolio which can be accessed via Career Connect within MUSE.
We encourage everyone to record activities and experiences in mySkills, as this will generate a personal skills profile and record of progression which you can share with tutors, prospective employers and other educational organisations.
To assist you in reflecting upon and recording your extracurricular activities within mySkills, we have selected a number of useful resources to help get you started. Staff who coordinate extracurricular activities may also find it useful to incorporate these resources into briefings, guidance notes and training.
mySkills - a brief overview for students
Example myDevelopment Experience Reflective Record
Reflective practice guidance (from 301 Academic Skills Centre)
The mySkills and your short term work experience pathway takes you through step-by-step guidance on using mySkills to aid you in your skills development through a period of short term work experience, record examples of where and how you have developed your skills, and talk about your experience in applications and interviews in the future.
A collection of short videos providing advice and guidance on the use of mySkills:
- How to get started with mySkills
- Goal setting and skills development in mySkills
- Reflecting and recording personal development in mySkills
These resources have been collated to support you with reflecting on your extracurricular activities, however, during your time at the University of Sheffield you will have the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and attributes through your course, your work experience and through extracurricular activities. You can reflect upon and record all of these using mySkills. Further information and guidance is available on the mySkills portfolio webpage.
Additional resources for staff
A set of Google Slides covering the use of mySkills for reflecting upon and recording skills. These could be integrated into activity briefings, guidance notes, training, or post-activity debrief sessions.
The mySkills and your short term work experience pathway can be used to incorporate the use of mySkills within short term work experience. The pathway takes students through how to use mySkills, identify goals for their experience, reflect on their skill development and market their experience to employers and/or tutors.
Please view our guidance video for a run-through of the pathway and information on how you can tailor its use to your activity. We would really appreciate it if you could let us know if you use the pathway within your activity so that can we gain feedback from you for future developments. Any queries please email employabilityprogrammes@sheffield.ac.uk
You can access the full range of mySkills Resources for Staff to find out more.