Impact Activity

While committing to your own development, we want you to put your skills into practice and be mindful of the impact you have on yourself and the people around you. That's why we ask all Award participants to engage in a minimum of 22 hours of Impact Activity.

This can be one activity or a group of activities, but the key thing to remember is that this is about experiential learning; namely, you putting your chosen skills into practice.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Organisation of and/or participation in group peer support or networking sessions, such as Speakeasy, Skill Up, Lunch and Learn, Cakes and Conversations, Women in Leadership panel
• Representing the Business School as part of the Student Ambassador programme
• Representing peers as a class, programme, or School representative
• Independent work on your own CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letter, job applications, job search/networking strategy
• Mock interview career meetings
• Active role in organising, promoting and/or delivering a professional networking event, industry conference or local trek, such as the Student Development Expo
• Design and execution of an individual or group based initiative, such as field trip, employer visit, class social event
• Student society or sports team committee member or leadership role
• Volunteer in the local community, such as Data Kirk
• Part-time job
• Sharing of your own reflections and learning, such as vlogging or blogging
• Attendance at networking event
• Intentional activity as part of a group project or collaboration with others, such as chairing a meeting, coordinating others, implementing new influencing tactics, giving/receiving feedback
• Intentional activity to increase academic and/or work performance, such as time management techniques, mindfulness, meditation, exercise, networking conversations, or informational interviews
• Doing a presentation
• Other activity that can be discussed with and agreed by the Student Development Team

Listen to a past Award student sharing her impact experience.

Read a past Award student's blog about her experience:

It's never too late to change yourself—thanks to the Edinburgh Award!

You may wish to discuss your Impact Activity options with your coach. If you’re really stuck, contact Student Development and we can explore further. We can help you refine your ideas but in the end it’s really up to you to decide what you want to do. This is about you tailoring your own development journey according to your needs and interests.

Remember that you are required keep track of your learning hours as you will be asked to summarise your experience at the final group session and evidence your hours via an Activity Tracker.

We acknowledge that some activities might overlap with the activities recognised by other Edinburgh Awards. Our Award, which has an employability focus and offers the opportunity to be coached by a trained professional, is specific to the Business School. Depending on what you want to achieve/gain recognition for, you will be in a position to choose which Award version best fits with your overall aims.