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PAL Academic Course Contact Guide: Promoting recruitment

This is a guide created by the Central PAL Team that provides information and advice on being a PAL Academic Course contact.

Promoting recruitment 

This page contains information, guidance, and template communications for you to use on the following:

  • Actions you can take as a PAL ACC to promote recruitment
  • Actions that the Central PAL Team are taking to promote recruitment
  • Recruitment materials (Student resources, template emails e.g. announcements and reminders of opened recruitment/closing date extension)

Actions you can take

Alongside our 23-24 Recruitment promotion plan (actions that the Central PAL Team are taking), please see the following for things that you can do as a PAL ACC:

  • Contact this year's Leaders to ask that they promote the role to their seminar groups. Aside from the MS Teams groups as created by the Central PAL Team, PAL Leaders often create social media groups. We have asked current Leaders to promote the vacancy via these routes, however you are welcome to ask this of them as well. 
  • Ensuring that potential PAL Leaders know they will be supported. Students can be put off from the role because they are unaware of the support offered. For example they will receive full training from the Central PAL Team, session ideas, weekly drop-in sessions throughout the year, one-to-one support on request, study skills support, and programme specific support from you as a PAL ACC (e.g. managing workload).  
  • Signpost students to our 'Benefits of being a PAL Leader' page. Here we have promotional videos, and lots of information about what students can gain from the position. Some of the most popular perks include being paid (for their session and session preparation time), and receiving a free BU hoodie.
  • Inform your colleagues that recruitment is open. Other members of staff may be able to help promote the role.
  • Directly contacting students who will be suitable in the role. If you think that this is appropriate for your cohort, you are welcome to send some targeted comms to specific students that would be well-suited to the position.
  • Opening recruitment to L6 students. If there is no interest from current L4 (to be L5), please promote the role to current L5 (to be L6).
  • Using Brightspace announcements. Please post recruitment announcements on Brightspace, as well as via email (and any other platforms you use).
  • Multiple emails with follow-ups. Please see the box titled 'Recruitment materials' on this page for template emails
  • Only conduct interviews if necessary. Keeping the process short and simple with our application form is best, however you may wish to conduct informal interviews if you have more applicants than positions available to gauge candidate suitability. If you receive more applicants than positions, please keep names filed in the event of PAL Leader withdrawal, or if an adjacent related programme under-recruits.

Recruitment materials

PAL Recruitment Promotion Plan

PAL Recruitment Communication plan  

Please find below our communication strategy to encourage applications for the PAL Leader role. 

  • PAL Talks - We will be organising promotional talks in lectures in which our former PAL Leaders will share the benefits of the role along with their personal experience as a PAL Leader. We hope students will be inspired by them and encouraged to apply. 
  • MS Teams – We will be utilising the existing PAL channels on this platform to announce opened recruitment and guidance on how to apply. To ensure students receive notification of the message we use the "@" to mention the group in each departmental channel. 
  • Email – we will be;
  • Contacting all 22-23 Leaders to request that they encourage their L4 students to apply e.g. via any PAL WhatsApp/Facebook groups that they have set up this year.
  • Directly emailing all L4 students regardless of attendance to encourage them to apply
  • Student comms newsletter – The role will be promoted in the Students newsletter until recruitment closes. 
  • Internal comms newsletter – This will ensure that all other staff as well as PAL ACCs will be aware of recruitment opening.
  • ResLife – using ResLife social media channels to promote the role via short videos.
  • My Career Hub/Careers & Employability – The Careers service will be helping to share this role on their platforms e.g. Jobs portal, faculty Brightspace comms, social media.
  • Social media ­– please look out for and share any of our recruitment posts on Twitter/Facebook. We have previously found Twitter to work well.
  • Skills Development Programme – as PAL is part of the Skills Development Programme, the team have promoted the role through their platforms.
  • SUBU – we are liaising with SUBU to explore promotion opportunities
  • Testimonials page - We are collecting PAL Leaders' testimonials from our former and current PAL Leaders in different Faculties to show students the skills and experience they can gain from the role by hearing from people studying in their course/ Faculty. 

Please continue to promote the role alongside our efforts in whatever way you find successful.