We asked students at the 2021 Employability Awards to tell us a bit about their experiences on placements.
Browse through the Employability Awards 2021 booklet (pdf 816kb)聽and quotes below to see what they had to say.
If you鈥檙e interested in benefiting from a similar placement experience during your studies, take a look through our courses. You can also read more about other students鈥� time on placement on our placement pages.
鈥淒uring my time on placement, I volunteered for the company鈥檚 Moment Makers scheme. A charity programme where a group of interns gathers together to raise money through a selection of events that are donated to MediCinema. We held weekly meetings to discuss our progress and set goals for each individual. It is not usually my character to lead a group however this year was all about seeking opportunities and stepping out of my comfort zone. Our hard work paid off as we ended up raising over 拢400.聽Overall, I am most proud of throwing myself into every opportunity that came my way."聽
Ellie, BA (Hons) Events Management student.
Placement organisation: The Walt Disney Company
鈥淒uring my time at Champions, I was tasked with creating proposals for potential clients. These sales decks were then sent to the prospective clients in order to show Champions resources and abilities to attract business. Whilst working at Champions, I have successfully onboarded multiple clients totalling over 拢150,000 of revenue for the business."聽
Jordan, BA (Hons) Business Studies with Economics student.
Placement organisation: Champions UK Plc
鈥淲hen I was asked to design flyers for the B2B account managers for their trade stories and pitches to customers, I reached out to the Global B2B Manager to ask for her approval and thoughts. She quickly trusted me and saw my potential as my flyer was effective in both informing and engaging customers. The final artwork got uploaded to the global portal, and was not only utilised in the UK, but also France, Italy, Spain and many more.鈥澛�
Georgia, BA (Hons) Business Studies with Marketing student.
Placement organisation:聽Energizer Holdings Inc
鈥淢y role within the company was to create a team that could utilise the bank staff who are in the process so that the NHS had staff available during these uncertain times. To understand the process, I had to communicate with various stakeholders within the company so that I had the fundamentals and knowledge to teach the team. After a few weeks it was concluded that the initial trial was a success and therefore a team of 12 colleagues could band to form the customer engagement team. After two months of the project, it was confirmed that the team had saved 拢200,000+ just by recruiting bank staff from NHSP rather than agency workers outside of the organisation.鈥�
As the pandemic progressed, the government introduced the Nightingale Hospitals, this was a contract that NHSP agreed to supply bank staff to these hospitals, we assisted in providing the staff, it was an honour to be part of this and especially proud that it was my team that helped deliver during a very difficult time for everyone.鈥澛�
Nathan, BSc (Hons) Sport Management student.
Placement organisation: NHS Professionals (NHSP)
鈥淚 feel extremely proud of myself and what I have achieved this year. Firstly, I鈥檝e changed from the person I was before and I feel very proud of who I鈥檓 now; I鈥檝e been defined as an essential asset for the hotel and I took charge of many things in my time here.鈥澛�
Eugenia, BA (Hons) International Tourism & Hospitality Management student.
Placement organisation: Park Plaza Vondelpark
鈥淚 was the focal for the UKI procurement tribe level Brexit project at IBM, a project which required a high level of Excel skills. During this project, I noticed some of my peers on the team were not as well versed in Excel. I decided to take the time to teach them common Excel skills and functions to help them not only succeed on this project but also to aid their personal growth and development. After displaying my skills and explaining my teaching to management, I was then recognised as an expert in Excel and was asked to become the UKI and Nordic procurement tribe trainer for Excel, on top of my day-to-day roles.
鈥淗ere I was able to help improve other IBMers productivity through smarter Excel practices via live one to one training sessions. It has been my responsibility as a tribe trainer to teach Excel functions to newcomers in procurement throughout my time at IBM. I went on to create a visual one stop shop Excel workbook, that continued to help others even after I had left IBM.鈥澛�
Heidi, BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance.
Placement organisation: IBM