Inspiring Futures Fund 2024–2025

Work Experience...

Will help you learn
Experimenting with different types of experiences will help you to get to know more about your likes, dislikes, values, priorities, and strengths as well as to learn more about different types of work to help you to make good decisions about your career. The more experiences you’ve had, the more learning and development that will happen as a result.

Is a safe place to experiment
You can invest your time volunteering or working in part-time roles and summer jobs as a chance to try new things and to road-test a career option.

Could be evidence of your passion
You can show that you are genuinely interested in that area of work. A great thing to put on your CV when you start to apply for graduate jobs.

Can help to get you connected
Work experience could put you next to the person that will put you in the right direction in terms of possible roles you can apply for.

Makes you more successful in applications and interviews
Applicants with work experience outperform those with no work experience. Employers will ask questions about your work experience, knowledge, and interest in the job. They are looking for clear examples and evidence of this.

We want to help you with the costs of undertaking your career-related work experience/other. This is why the Careers, Employability, and Enterprise Team has a dedicated fund that is open to most current University of Suffolk students:

• part-time, full-time 
• undergraduate and postgraduate (Masters)
• classed as home or international 
• studying in the following locations: Ipswich, East Coast College and Suffolk New College.

The scheme is not open to PhD students.

The scheme supports low or unpaid work experience/CPD that can be in the UK, overseas or for research-related experiences (e.g. Research project at the University or within an organisation that is undertaking research), for example, help getting to interviews, assessment centres, insight days or fund to access professional clothing. You may also want some help to fund a training course or conference that is relevant to your personal and skills development.

The Inspiring Futures Fund will be awarded on a competitive, first come, first served basis, assessed against the strength of the information provided in the application form until the allocated funding for the has been exhausted. There is no guarantee that an application will be successful or that you will receive the full amount requested. 

Priority will be given to students that have not received funding before, and students can only receive a grant once per year of study.

To apply you must complete the online application form and send it to inspiringfuturesfund@uos.ac.uk, along with all of your supporting documents. A decision will be made on your suitability to receive the funds following the closing dates mentioned above.

Applications are assessed on a first come, first served basis and you must return your evidence and documents in a timely manner to avoid the risk of your requested funds being allocated to another student.

The University reserves the right to close the fund earlier if all funds are disbursed before the closing date.

Make a start with your application by reading the terms and conditions first, then fill in the online application form and submit your budget planner in support of your application.

Below you can find the processing times for incoming applications.

Opening Date	Closing Date	Panel Dates
30/09/2024	06/12/2024	TBC
06/01/2025	28/03/2025	TBC
07/04/2025	27/06/2025	TBC

The purpose of this section is to help you plan out a comprehensive budget for your work experience or other funds requested. There are two parts of the budget template: the budget costing overview and detailed budget evidence. Please ensure you use the budget template document to create your budget planner.

The table will allow you to identify individual costs associated with the work experience or other (e.g. accommodation costs, training course). The budget planner will allow you to provide evidence to support your budget figures (e.g. a screenshot from a website showing the accommodation cost). You should insert all the costs you will incur as a result of going on your work experience or internship opportunity in your application.

If your work experience is yet to be confirmed, please provide estimates of what the costs may be. You can re-confirm these costs at a later stage once finalised. For example, if you know the approximate location and length of the work experience, provide an estimate of costs based on this and include a note that is based on estimates only. These estimations will still need to be supported by evidence from your research into what the costs are likely to be.

If you will be receiving a salary for your work experience opportunity and/or allowances, you can still apply for an Inspiring Futures Fund to help you access it before your first salary is received. You must include the total salary and/or allowances you expect to receive. You may then apply for an Inspiring Futures Fund to contribute towards any remaining costs.

To provide evidence of the costs you include, you should provide supporting evidence by completing and submitting your budget planner (please ensure you add your name and student ID number to your budget planner). In addition to the evidence, you should also include any calculations within your budget planner to demonstrate how costs were identified. This is especially important when the evidence doesn’t directly match the figures entered. When submitting your budget planner please make sure it is clear what information we should be referring to and which cost it is relevant to. In the past students have included entire documents or provided website addresses with no accompanying evidence from them.

Where costs in your budget or supporting evidence are shown in a foreign currency, you must also provide a conversion demonstrating the costs in pounds sterling for each individual expense.

Failure to supply comprehensive budget information and evidence will have a detrimental effect on your application and may delay award of a payment.

Check out the links below and read more about students who have been awarded an Inspiring Futures Fund on their experience and how it support thier career aspirations.

• “Having financial support from the bursary team of £150 towards the training enabled me to commit to a four-day week course” Hannah McCarthy
• “No-one should miss out on ANY opportunities due to their socioeconomic status, disabilities, gender identity, race, or any other underrepresented background” Carrie-Anne Chapman
• “Applying for the Inspiring Futures Fund could offer a fantastic opportunity to develop specific skills in a step towards your desired career” Scarlett Moloney
• “It has changed my perspective of life and healthcare entirely. It has made me a better person by far, not only personally but professionally” Kara Wilkinson
• "This residency was the best experience of both my academic career, and my personal life" Ellen Freeman