Personal Best London Award

Personal Best London is Loughborough University London’s professional development Award. It has been designed to help all our students to track their personal and professional development. The award helps students to recognise, reflect and better articulate their own skills and experiences, and prepare them for their future careers.

How do I start my Personal Best London journey?

By activating your Handshake account when you arrive at Loughborough University London, your Personal Best London journey will automatically begin! Students can sign up to events and book 1:1 appointments with the Future Space team through Handshake to contribute activities to their Personal Best record.

How do I add activities to my Personal Best London record?

  • Future Space events – At every event hosted by the Future Space team, students will be given the opportunity to ‘check in’ to register their attendance at an event. Simply scan a QR code and enter your student email address at each event you attend, and this will automatically be added to your record in Handshake.
  • Appointments – Handshake will automatically record your attendance to each online appointment. For in person appointments, the team will help you to check in during your appointment.
  • Activities not hosted by Future Space – Some external events offered through Handshake will share the same QR check in process so when this is available, please use this to record attendance. Other activities such as external events, online courses, volunteering, community engagement etc – Please keep some evidence of these activities (email, photos, certificate of completion) and you will be invited to share these with the team towards the end of your PB journey.
  • Students will be required to add at least 15 activities to their Personal Best London record to be eligible for the award.

It is the responsibility of students that check in is completed and added to your Personal Best London record. If you do not check in at events, we might not be able to add this to your Personal Best London record.

Once you have completed your required “PB15”, you will be invited to produce a reflective report which reflects upon your developmental journey whilst at Loughborough University London.  This is your chance to reflect on your experience and how this has impacted on your skills and experience as you embark on the next step of your career. 

Your reflective submission can be a video, podcast, poster, presentation or written document. Examples of previous successful submissions  can be found in Handshake. 

Why complete Personal Best London?

The Personal Best London Award is a fantastic way of recording and evidencing your experiences. It is essentially creating a record of extra-curricular development through all the support on offer during your time at Loughborough University London. 

Also: 

  • Building the reflective report is a great way to develop examples to help you with applications and interviews. Reflecting on your development will help you articulate with confidence your skills and experiences
  • The Personal Best London Award can now be added to your degree transcript! This can help demonstrate to potential employers your commitment to additional development and learning. 

Is there a deadline for completion of Personal Best London?

All submissions for the full award must be completed by June for October starters and December for January starters. Completing the award means you will be invited to our  Community Celebration Event  to receive your award. 

For any questions about Personal Best London, please contact FutureSpace@lboro.ac.uk.

Keeping track of progress

Tracking events

Simply head to the ‘events’ page in Handshake and click on the ‘check ins’ button top right (web based) or the arrow icon top right (app based) to view a list of events you have checked into.

Tracking appointments

Head to the appointments part of Handshake and check the number of ‘Past appointments’ currently listed. 

External activities

Please keep track of these activities as per above and be ready to share this evidence when asked. 

Am I eligible?

This will take a simple bit of maths on your part: 

(Number of events check ins) + (Number of attended appointments) + (Number of external activities) = your Personal Best total. If your Personal Best total is 15 or more – Congratulations. You are now eligible to make a submission and receive your award! 

Not quite there yet? Please continue to use the guidance above and continue to engage with the Future Space services on offer to achieve your Personal Best award.