Business Placements

What are business placements?

A business placement is your chance to work full-time at a company, usually for one academic year or a full year. The longer timeframe is a huge plus, as you'll take on meaningful projects, gain confidence and build valuable skills that employers love. All before you graduate. 

Best of all, you’ll earn a salary.

Business is vast, and you could work in exciting areas across all business sectors. Some of these include;

• Business management

• Business operations

• Business support

• Consulting

• Logistics

• Project management

• Strategy and development.

What do you do on a business placement?

A placement puts you at the heart of real workplace projects, giving you valuable hands-on experience for your future career in the industry.

Depending on the role you get involved in, you may be asked to;

• Gather and analyse data

• Work as part of the supply chain

• Meet with clients

• Report to senior team members

• Create financial reports

• Developing and tracking projects

• Run a branch of the company (retail)

• Deal with customer issues

• Work as part of the insolvency and restructuring team.

How much do business placements pay?

As a placement student, you'll step into a full-time role, so you'll be paid a fair wage for your hard work.

Based on student-written reviews on Higherin, you can expect a salary of around £21,500 per year. 

Many employers offer competitive salaries to ensure you can live in the current financial climate. For example, a consulting placement with Accenture pays just over £23,300 per year, and a sales placement with Knoor-Bremse Rail Systems UK pays around £23,600 per year.

Take your time exploring all your options. There are plenty of exciting opportunities out there with great salaries to match.

How to apply for an business placement?

Once you’ve found the placement(s) of your dreams, it’s probably time to put together an application that’ll impress employers from the start.

Start early. Employers start looking for their placement students around the same time your second year starts. During December and January, employers will usually begin their first round of interviews with assessment centres happening around February until April.

Polish your CV. It’s the start of every application you’ll send off. Include your recent experiences and any skills that match the job description. Remember, you don’t need five pages of experience. Instead, focus on adding the skills they’re looking for. There’s a high chance you already have them.

PRO TIP: Always tailor your CV for each job you apply to. It’ll show employers that you’re reading the description and not just recycling old content you've sent elsewhere.

Prep for interviews and assessment centres. This will be a huge part of your application journey. Practice your interview skills with family and friends and take practice psychometric tests. It’ll go a long way in calming any pre-interview nerves.

“I think it's important to be enthusiastic! Don't hesitate to ask questions both in your assessment centre and once you start, it shows that you're engaged and interested in what's going on around you.” Undergraduate Placement Programme & Project Manager, AWE.

There’s a lot more where that came from! Click below for more application help.