Hey everyone, my name is David. I graduated with a BASc in Economic Studies and Global Sustainable Development (GSD) in the class of 2019. I just wanted to talk to you briefly about undertaking some form of work placement whilst completing your studies in GSD, and specifically my experience, doing so as part of the School for Cross-faculty Studies’ Certificate of Professional Communication.

Firstly, the Certificate aims to provide an understanding of the professional environment by exploring the link between communication and employability, and is run by the Department’s Employability and Placement Manager. It’s worth noting that both the Certificate and the Employability and Placement Manager are unique offerings of the GSD Department.

For me, the main benefit of completing a work placement is that it is an excellent opportunity which will provide you with a plethora of experiences to reflect upon for your own personal and professional development, aswell as to potentially discuss in future job applications. It can add a bit of structure to your summer months which was particularly useful for me as I began preparing and reading for my final year Dissertation, and at the very least, it is something you can add to your CV.

The placement I did spanned four weeks where I was assigned with one of my GSD peers to an NHS trust to assist them with producing a sustainable development management plan, something that’s become mandatory for all NHS front-line trusts to produce as of recent years. This involved a lot of internal stakeholder engagement and thus communication and became a really great outlet for myself and my peer to operationalise a lot of the learnings and teachings we had gained in the classroom, in the real workplace. This was very nice because we ended up being championed for the academic expertise that we accrued on sustainable development up until that point. It really felt like we were the experts in the field.

What was also challenging was the fact that many people I wanted to speak with within the organisation were busy professionals who had to take time out of their day to speak to me. It was very important that I conducted myself and communicated in a very professional manner at all times. This is where doing your placement as part of the Certificate of Professional Communication can be really beneficial, as you’ll undertake a series of workshops before commencing the placement, which for me were great opportunities to learn more about the workplace etiquette, about communicating in a professional capacity, and for anyone to ask any work placement related questions.

So I hope this has been a useful insight into some of my experiences with completing a work placement as well as the Certificate for Professional Communication. Aside from the summer placement, there’s also the option of completing an intercalated, year-long placement as part of the GSD degree programme (which I personally did not do). If you’d like to find out more information about that, or about anything careers-related in GSD, visit the Careers section on the GSD website, or feel free to contact the Employability and Placement Manager for GSD via email.

Thank you for listening!