Breaking Barriers: How a Bursary Designed and Delivered by USW, Cardiff University, and Cardiff Met Opened Doors for Students

With the rising cost of living, many students must prioritise paid work over unpaid internships and volunteering—opportunities that are often crucial for career development.

To address this challenge, Cardiff University, Cardiff Met University, and the University of South Wales launched a bursary to remove financial barriers and help students gain valuable work experience.

This pilot project allowed students to support civic mission and public engagement activities through hands-on work experience that benefit local communities while developing employability skills.

A Transformative Impact: Rebuilding Confidence and Connections

The bursary had a transformative impact, supporting 90 students in securing work placements with 57 external organisations including Citizen’s Advice, Grange Pavillion Community Gateway, Public Health Wales, and more. These students contributed fresh ideas and hands-on support to civic projects, helping to strengthen community initiatives while developing their own skills and confidence.

For many, this experience was particularly crucial after the disruption of lockdowns, which left students with fewer opportunities to build professional networks and gain real-world experience. Through the bursary, they were able to access placements without worrying about costs like travel and uniforms.

The result? New connections, job references, and even employment offers—helping to set students on stronger career paths.

Lasting Benefits for All

Beyond individual benefits, the bursary also enhanced the quality of services delivered to the community. One standout project saw illustration students transform Cardiff’s electrical boxes into vibrant pieces of street art, demonstrating how students could make a visible impact while gaining hands-on experience.

By removing financial barriers, this initiative has helped ensure that career-enhancing opportunities are open to all students, not just those who can afford them—creating lasting benefits for both students and the communities they serve.

“Especially when contending with the rising cost of living, employability or personal development opportunities are increasingly difficult to access for students who are time or resource poor. The bursary has removed common barriers such as travel and uniform costs to allow students to access opportunities that increase their skills and confidence, better preparing them for life after university. The bursary has played a crucial role in empowering students to make the most of their university experience.” - Feedback from staff

“Collaborating with community groups as part of this project has resulted in fostering a rich exchange of knowledge and skills, enabling us as universities to address local challenges more effectively.” - Glesni Ayres, USW. 

Emily, a BSc Sociology student, undertook work experience within the Third Sector Research Partnership (TSRP) with Grow Cardiff

Emily said the opportunity ‘allowed me to gain excellent experience in literature-based research. I was able to meet with my third sector partner, Grow Cardiff, to find out what research they desperately needed on the whole-school growing approach, search and read literature to find relevant articles, and then provided a detailed piece of work to summarise my findings. Isla at Grow Cardiff said the work was massively beneficial to them as it means they can evidence claims they make online or in funding bids in academic literature as well as potentially develop their project further with a feasibility study supported by my work.

Whilst at the TSRP offices I connected with some great fellow students conducting similar pieces of work and key researchers in the building. Anna was always keen to provide support for our future careers in any way possible such as introducing us to key academics in the building and flagging any job opportunities she knew about to us. I feel this experience has been hugely beneficial to me and my career’.

Dr Anna Skeels from Third Sector Research Partnership said, ‘This is a great example of how our immediate community in Cardiff can benefit from students’ enthusiasm and expertise as well as how students can learn more about the community within which they live and work.’

Kate, an illustration student, undertook work experience with Cooked.

Kate said ‘Engaging with this insight has greatly increased my confidence in terms of applications, personalised documents and overall professionalism. It gave me the motivation and insight to pursue outside opportunities, such as the internship at Cooked illustration, and also other job roles I initially thought I wouldn't be cut out for.

The internship at Cooked, which I acquired through the help of the bursary, has expanded my knowledge as a freelance artist by placing me in an environment surrounded by like-minded and professional artists. Seeing the business side to running a startup illustration company has given me a much larger understanding of what to do in my own freelance journey, such as the formation of contracts, invoices, client outreach and more.’