Archived news
15 June 2016: Conference prepares our students for placements
Second-year students from departments in our Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Science and Health attended the placement pre-departure conference last week to get tips and advice from guest speakers before going on year-long placements, as part of their degree.
Opened by Amirah Hajat and Charlie Neuner from top placement advertisers RateMyPlacement, the conference was attended by more than 80 students. As well providing an invaluable networking opportunity to meet fellow placement students who will work in the same organisation or city, students also learnt about a range of topics from how to prepare for the workplace and what to expect from the first month, to income tax and intellectual property.
An additional 30 first-year students also attended the conference to find out how to get ahead with their placement application and receive advice from second year students.
Faculty Placements Manager, Heather Doyle, said: “We were incredibly pleased to see so many students at the conference. You could feel the excitement and anticipation from students about to embark on an incredible experience. There is no doubt that completing a placement helps them when applying for future graduate roles and seeing the progression students make throughout the year is unbelievably rewarding.”
Sapna Tanner, who will be going on placement this year, said: “I like the fact that the placements team will be on call every step of the way during your year away, no matter where you are in the world.”
Amy Anderson, another placement year student said: “The conference was very helpful and answered a lot of questions I hadn't even thought about yet but would have needed answered on my placement which was useful. I really enjoyed the day and it was nice to meet others going out on placement and to find out where they were going.”
This summer, nearly 40 students from our Faculty will be going on placement with a wide variety of organisations, including Volkswagen, Fleishman Hillard, Adobe, HMRC, Department of Work and Pensions, TransPerfect and Essex County Council. There are also a number of international placements in locations based all over the world from Monaco to Dubai, New York to Lithuania, and Spain to Brazil.