Dr Catherine Harbor (Academic Director for the programme) , Emma Baker (the Careers Consultant for YIB) and Katharine Radford (Year in Business Programme Officer) gave an introduction to how the Year in Business programme works and the benefits students can expect from a year in business. There is so much evidence now that points to the benefits of placements/ internships when it comes to looking for graduate roles.
High Fliers research 2016 highlighted the importance of students gaining work experience on their CVs http://yearinbusiness.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/high-fliers-2016-research-value-of-work.html
> Almost half the recruiters who took part in the research repeated their warnings from previous years – that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.
> Recruiters have confirmed that they expect a third of this year's full-time graduate positions to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations, either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work.
Emma quoted DLHE stats which indicates that students who have had a placement year are more likely to get a job after graduation (DLHE shows 82% have a job after a sandwich degree vs 74% without).
Emma also quoted a follow up report of the Wilson Review by the Department for BIS (2012) using HESA 2009/10 data which suggests that the average salary of students who have completed a sandwich placement is 8% higher than those who did not 6 months after graduating.
Emma and Catherine both quoted a Ulster University study which concluded that students undertaking a placement year tend on average to graduate directly with a higher degree classification than those proceeding directly to the final year of studies. The study found that the impact of the placement year was statistically significant for both male and female students and associated with an increase classification from 2:2 to 2:1.
Emma pointed students to the Career Service Event listing https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/careers/events/eventlistings.aspx and particularly recommended the Part time jobs fair (28th Sept), Business and Finance Week (17th - 21st October) and Linkedin day (12ths October)
Students were reminded that they needed to achieve a 2:1 in their 1st year in order to progress into the 2nd year of the Year in Business programme. So the students do need to work hard to secure the grades necessary to stay on the programme and then to secure a placement itself but the results can be very positive. 3 students who have returned from their placement years at Vauxhall (Louis Alecu), Enterprise (Mo Butt) and The Walt Disney Company (Hippolyte Petit) all spoke very enthusiastically about their experiences and why they would recommend a placement year. Hippolyte encouraged the students to dream big!
For the students out on placement last year the 2 responses they were most likely to give in response to the question " how do you think your placement has helped you towards your graduate career goals?" were:
> Enhanced my professional skill set/ competencies
> Increased confidence in myself.
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| Mo Butt completed a placement year as a Revenue intern (2015/16) at Enterprise |
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| Louis Alecu completed a placement year as a European Supply chain analyst (2015/16) at Vauxhall |
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| Hippolyte Petit completed a placement year as a Social Media & Digital Acquisition Intern (2015/16) at The Walt Disney Co |
After the meeting we enjoyed a plentiful tea and it was good to chat to many new students over cake in the Management building foyer and to hear their enthusiasm for the programme.
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