BU to offer all students placement opportunities

8 December 2011

From 2012 every student at Bournemouth University will have the chance to gain valuable work experience to help kick start their careers.

Graduate careers are under the spotlight. With increased tuition fees being introduced from 2012 students want to ensure their degree will help set them up with a rewarding and fulfilling career. Bournemouth University has always focussed on blending vocational learning with academic learning. Now from 2012 BU is offering all undergraduate students* the opportunity to have an industrial placement, and is one of only a few universities to offer this. The duration will depend on the student and course, but these placements will give students a head start when it comes to planning their future careers.

Tim McIntyre-Bhatty Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for Student Experience, Education & Professional Practice, said: "We are proud to build on our current achievement of having the higher number of students on placements across the sector by giving this new commitment. We wish to ensure that every student joining us from 2012 has the opportunity to gain valuable work experience alongside the excellent academic experience we offer at BU".

The placement year helps students gain valuable work experience. Jo Routledge, who studied Events Management, said: "The most important aspect of my four years at Bournemouth University was getting my placement year because it definitely gives you a head start already having a year's experience on your CV." Faye Hayward, who also studied Events Management, agrees: "I think if you speak to anyone who has done their placement year they are so much more prepared for work."

Marc Short, who studied Marketing at BU said that he had a head start when looking for work after his work experience: "The placement year has given me a real wealth of experience. When you finish uni and are looking for a job, if you have a year's work experience the company is definitely going to see it as a bonus and employ you."

It's not only the students who benefit from the placement. Employers also appreciate what the students from BU bring to their organisations. Peter Bennett, Partnership Executive Officer from Bates Wells and Braithwaite, a law firm, said: "We recruited someone from Bournemouth on a sandwich course and that was so overwhelmingly successful in terms of the person and the role that they carved out for us that this year we went back and recruited three and we see it as a long term relationship that has been very successful for us."

Simon Mitchell, the MD of Impulse Events, says that one of the real benefits of hiring a placement from BU is that their placement often falls in the third year of their degree course as opposed to the second year as on so many other degrees. "I think that the extra year if experience and learning about events really stands them in much better stead to come into the work place and have a real understanding of what they are going to be doing. For us it's great because they only go back to uni for one year and potentially they could come back and work for us."

For more details about placements at Bournemouth University, please visit: https://mycareerhub.bournemouth.ac.uk

*For full time undergraduate courses only at present, but BU is looking to extend this opportunity to all students in the future including FdA, Top Ups and PG courses.