Official opening of the Placements Place & Call Back afternoon news

The School of Management foyer was buzzing at lunchtime on Monday 29^th January as we welcomed Royal Holloway's Bob O’Keefe (Dean of Management, Economics and Law Faculty) and Gloria Agyemang (Head of School of Management) to cut the ribbon to officially open the Placements Place.

The Placements Place, office 10 of the Moore building, has been recently refurbished to provide a welcoming area for students seeking placements to come for advice: do come and relax on our sofa, check out our video screen and placement board and chat to the Placement officers. It is also a place to celebrate the success of previous YIBs who have already secured placement positons and in many cases found Graduate jobs on the back of their successful placements. Our large Tube track poster, “Where will your placement take you?” provides an inspiring list of company names, both large and small, where our Management students have been on placement.

On that note we were delighted to welcome our current cohort of YIBs who were in College for their Call Back afternoon. These students connected with each other over the buffet lunch and many spoke to members of staff and encouraged younger year YIBs to remain persistent in their placement hunt. Following short speeches by Katharine Radford (Year in Business Programme Officer); Alvaro Ferreira (current placement student at Ascot Wealth Management) and Bob O’Keefe (Faculty Dean) the ribbon was cut!

During the Call Back Afternoon the YIB students talked at length about their Academic Assessment.

> One workshop with the YIB Careers’ Advisors gave each student the opportunity to talk through one of their STAR examples and get instant feedback on their specific example for their Personal Development Portfolio.

    > A second reflective workshop on their Case study saw Justin O’ Brien, one of the YIB Academic Advisors giving tips to the students and drawing in the learnings from returning YIB, Kwok Lam, back in his Final year having completed his placement at DHL in 2016/17.

   

   > All students were encouraged to interact regularly with their YIB Advisor as they work towards the October 15th deadline for their Assessment.

In addition to learning about the Academic Assessment, the students found out about forthcoming placement visits (all students get a visit to their workplace between 5 – 9 months into their placement) and about the opportunity to gain passport points by writing blog articles and by signing up to be a Peer Guide and mentor 1^st year YIB students from September https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/campus-life/student-roles/student-roles.aspx

Unfortunately Year in Business students cannot gain passport points from the placement itself as it is a mandatory part of the degree but can get points from other internships, from doing Passport Challenges and a range of other activities outlined on the website: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/jobs-careers/employability/passport-award/passport-award.aspx

We concluded the evening with a trip to go bowling and witnessed some very impressive performances all round.

Thank you to all YIB students for taking time out of their placements to attend the Call Back afternoon – it was good to hear how your placements have been going!