The 2018/19 academic year proved to be a highly successful year for students within the Accountancy, Finance and Economics department that undertook placements. As a placement supervisor, it is my responsibility to support my students during their placement offering advice and finally visiting the workplace to review the year with a presentation delivered by the student.
Current undergraduate students from all courses especially 2nd years, need to be aware of the advantages of undertaking a placement and what benefits it would bring to them.
So, here are my top 5 reasons to any student, why you should consider to undertake a placement and if you needed any more reassurance, I have included direct quotes from my placement students on their experiences. Enjoy!
James Wright
Lincoln International Business School
Programme Leader Accountancy and Finance CertHE
ACCA, MSc, BA (Hons), HEA
1. Workplace Experience
The workplace is a completely different environment compared to university life. A placement will expose you to the dynamics of a job role, new colleagues and responsibility you will take on at the organisation. This may be the first time you will be experiencing a working environment and it will test your skills and attributes developed at university. However, this will better prepare you when applying for graduate roles with this invaluable experience and it will give you a better idea which role will suit your qualities.
“This year has given me the opportunity to gain valuable experience working in finance and has enabled me to grow in confidence, not only in myself but also in my future prospects. My placement has given me the opportunity to prove to myself that I am capable; it has put me in the right frame of mind for my final year at university.
I have gained and built upon a variety of skills, including problem solving, communication and people management. The search for a placement is tough, but it demonstrates your resilience as you continue the search, while many others around you give up. A placement year gives the chance to develop a greater understanding of the theory we learn in lectures, so that it does not feel like you are being throw in at the deep end upon graduating”.
Sophie Drewery
GT Smith – Purchase Ledger Clerk
2. Developing your Skills, Attributes & Competencies
Being on placement will put you out of your comfort zone, test your resolve and challenge you in numerous areas. You will have to take on board the responsibility of being part of an organisation and a team, but the learning curve from your experience will be invaluable. You will learn to work with different people from various backgrounds, train in new areas and learn new transferable skills that you can apply back at university and in future roles. The more exposure, challenges and variety, the better the experience of the placement student.
3. Increasing your Employability
By completing a placement and gaining a year of professional experience, this is an excellent first step as to deciding which type of route you would like to take after graduation. A placement will open more doors to you when applying for graduate roles, and students that apply for a graduate scheme where they undertook their placement tend to have a high success of obtaining a role as the company already know you.
“Going on placement was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I had the opportunity to put what I’d been taught into practise, accustom myself to working in an office and met lots of new people. The benefits of the placement student to the employer are threefold: the opportunity to develop and nurture new talent, gain new perspective and ideas and the opportunity to grow your own talent, potentially resulting in lower recruitment costs in the future”.
Alexander Lynch
Volkswagen – Finance Assistant
4. Being paid a Salary
The vast majority of placements you will be paid a wage for the role that you undertake for the year. Please check before applying what the salary is, especially with the location as the living costs in London for example are very much higher than in other locations. A salary however can give you the opportunity to save money for your final year of university and some placement students benefit from cheaper accommodation by choosing a placement close to home. Either way, it’s fantastic to receive an income as a student from being part of the organisation and it will teach you the value of money.
5. Widening your Professional Contacts
Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’? Building your professional network is becoming more and more important to develop yourself in your career. You never know who you may meet or how they may help you in the future, so, download LinkedIn, introduce yourself to lots of new contacts and benefit as much as possible from your placement opportunity.
“I was given real responsibility from the start of my placement. I was doing work that would’ve had to be done by a permanent member of staff had I not been there, they were not just creating work to keep me busy.
I built and developed skills that are desired in the industry I want to go into – and having done this in a real working environment with real work examples to demonstrate these skills is advantageous to myself in the process of applying to grad schemes. My confidence has also grown massively having spent a year working with experienced professionals.
You can gain insight into the type of work you could be doing in a grad role, built skills in a real work environment and expand your professional network. My placement was fun and enjoyable, and I’ve made good friends I’ll keep in touch with”
Lewis Mattock
Lloyds Banking Group – Credit Risk Analyst
Thank you for taking the time to read this article and I hope it has proved to be useful! If you would like more information about how to apply for placements, please email Stephanie and Charlotte who are the careers and employability leads within the Business School:
libsemployability@lincoln.ac.uk
Best of luck with your placement applications!
James