Bodrun Nahar, Employability and Placement Manager >> My role is to support students in developing their employability and professional skills throughout their study programme, so that it makes it a little bit more easier for them to find a job after graduation.

We offer them two work placement options that they can undertake during their studies. This is the Certificate of Professional Communication and the intercalated year out (which is commonly referred to as a sandwich placement/industrial placement).

The Certificate of Professional Communication is very much designed to give students an exposure and understanding of the working environment. After they have completed this short course, they then go out to work for an employer for around a month to really get a feel for the working environment.

The other, the intercalated year out, is when students have completed their second year (they do a four-year degree) and in their third year they go out to work for an organisation for a minimum of seven months, up to 12 months, and all of the learning takes place in the working environment.

As the GSD degree programme is very much designed to develop skills employers are looking for, our students can actually go into a number of different industries and also perform different roles.

Carlos Simón Moreno, GSD and Business Studies Graduate >> Last year I underwent a 10-month long placement at a company called Glencore, and the company specialises in the trading and mining of commodities. I was specifically working with the freight team which involves the shipping of commodities around the globe. Within that, I had the chance to work on certain projects and some of them were particularly interesting to me, relating to sustainability.

The main reason I decided to do a work placement was because I wanted to gain further experience before graduating, as I was unsure as to what I wanted to do in the future. I was able to develop very necessary skills for the working environment in terms of communication and organisation. It has really allowed me to discover a company and a sector which I hadn’t considered previously for my future, and I have been lucky enough that I really enjoyed it.

Tom Lytton-Dickie, Founder and CEO of Meaningful Business >> We’re a media platform and community designed for leaders around the world who are tackling the world’s most pressing issues and helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We were absolutely blown away by the quality of the students we worked with – we worked with four of the GSD undergraduates, all of whom we would have hired in a heartbeat if we could. They really made it possible for us to deliver a successful award last year and we couldn’t have done it without them.

Their written and verbal communication was very good, research skills (which was a fundamental par of their task) was great, their ability to reach out and talk to senior people in our community which we ended up trusting them to do, digital marketing and design which was also a big part of the programme they ended up helping out with a lot as well. We trusted them completely to be involved across our business.

Nirav Shah, GSD and Business Studies Graduate >> I completed a year-long placement at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and a global investment manager in their London office. I can’t begin to describe how valuable the work placement was for me. Firstly and most importantly, it helped me to confirm that I wanted to enter the finance industry as a career path after I graduated. Secondly, the amount of training and learning I benefitted from was exceptional. From working on daily tasks, project-based work, and networking opportunities, the working environment provided me with an unparalleled experience that I wouldn’t have been able to gain from a classroom environment.

As well as the newly acquired knowledge from the placement, it also provided me with a substantial piece of experience to add to my CV, which ultimately proved beneficial in helping me secure another internship after the placement, as well as two graduate scheme contracts in investment management and markets, which I both credit heavily to completing the placement.

Kaushal Shah, Founder and CEO of envoPAP >> We are a sustainable materials company that creates innovative packaging, materials, and paper, that’s kind to the planet. It has been very interesting to see how students apply what they have learned in university and see them grow as team members in the company.

Students from the University of Warwick have displayed an incredible work ethic and a passion for creating sustainable change, which we’re very passionate about.

Bodrun Nahar, Employability and Placement Manager >> As we all know, it is a very competitive job market out there – it has always been so and it will continue to be the case. This is the reason why we want to make sure that we support our students to develop the skills that are required for them to succeed in this market. So, when you do join us, do think about different areas that you’re interested in and just remember, you’re not on your own. We are here to support you throughout the whole process – whether it’s your academics or whether it’s in my capacity – we will be there for you. They key message here is that the support is there for you, but it’s important that you also take ownership and responsibility in shaping your future by making sure that you do engage in work placements so that it helps you to develop your employability and professional skills.

 

Find out more about GSD work placements: warwick.ac.uk/gsd