by Esther Rzewski
What’s WSPA you may ask? I have heard it said – shock and horror – by 3rd year Warwick students themselves. Well, fear not, this article will guide you through the essentials of the Warwick Skills Portfolio Award and workshops.
The Skills Workshop
I first heard of the WSPA whilst looking through the Careers and Skills workshops website. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what workshops?” you’ll ask. Well, if you think you could do with tips and advice on:
Understanding yourself
Succeeding in your studies
Researching
Academic writing
Communication skills
Leadership
…then you might want to take a look at the Careers’ Skills workshops. These are completely free and take 10 seconds to book online (see below for details). They will challenge your thinking, and push you to reflect on what you are already doing and how you can improve. The workshops are interactive, but you’ll also get the PowerPoint slides to revisit if you attend the workshop.
Taking that learning further
WSPA takes the learning from a workshop one step further; After going to a workshop on a skill of your choice (eg: time management or critical thinking) you complete 3 pieces of reflective writing about what you’ve learnt from it over 3 to 5 weeks.
That way, instead of just attending, listening and engaging in 1 workshop, you end up practicing what you’ve learnt, and reflecting and developing that skill over time. You will potentially be building that skill and making it stronger, before turning it into a habit. This way, the workshop is just the start of your journey.
The workshops are for everyone, whether you want to complete the WSPA or not. But if you want to improve your knowledge and spend extra time developing your understanding, then head over to Careers’ Skills website on WSPA and get cracking with the ‘Getting Started with the WSPA’ Moodle online course. This will then allow you to start the WSPA. Good luck whatever path you choose!
Book a workshop here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/skills.
Learn more or enroll onto the ‘Getting Started with WSPA’ Moodle course: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/skills/events/gettingstarted-wspa/.
Have you started the WSPA or attended any of the skills workshops at Warwick? If so, tell us about your experience below or email us at globuswarwick@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading and happy brewing!
GLOBUS 
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