A Cosmopolitan-reading Shakespeare and economists attired a la Reservoir Dogs were two of the strange sights seen recently at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Students from different departments dressed up to take part in the college's third annual Student Skills competition, in which the 14 competing teams had to put together an exhibition stand and a ten-minute presentation illustrating the skills they had developed while studying.

Several teams used role-play to illustrate their themes. The team of English literature students had a make-believe William Shakespeare interrogate them about their skills and outlook, while the economists, who,it turned out were dressed as City yuppies rather than gun-toting bank robbers, toasted themselves with champagne. This year's Pounds 800 first prize was won by students from the Welsh Institute of Rural Studies (see box below).

The competition is organised by the college careers service. Monica Jalloq, service director, said: "As well as offering our students the chance to sell themselves to employers, it helps make them more aware of what they have to sell. If you ask a student to tell you what skills they have, about 1 per cent will reel off a list but the rest will just be puzzled. The competition makes them think about these things."

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For some the pay-off job-wise is evident and rapid: "Every member of last year's winning team was offered a job on the day of the competition - although it probably helped that they were computer scientists," says Jalloq.

Craig Owen, education and welfare officer of Aberystwyth's student union, was a member of the winning geography team in 1997. "The competition certainly did a lot for my confidence. Students tend not to think about the skills they have - or at least are unable to put them into employer-speak. Once they know what they can do, their ability to communicate improves."

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All teams received Pounds 200 start-up help from a departmental academic and were twinned with a company. The international politics team, for instance, had four days' team-building training from its "twin", Reuters.

Judges' chair Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, says: "The great thing is that it is learning by doing. One of my frequent disappointments with graduates is that they undersell themselves because they don't realise what they have to offer."