Student Placements Symposium

The first Student Placements Symposium took place on 10 May 2017 in Highfield House. The aim of the event was to further increase student engagement with the school's Placements Programme by providing a forum for recent placement students to talk about internship experiences in a variety of different roles. Two way dialogue was built-in through a lively Q&A session. The main event was followed up with a chance for students to chat with a number of invited placement partners and the student presenters.

The four presentations were very different in focus. The presentation brief set by event organiser and School Placements Administrator, Steve Vaccarini, was to encourage the four presenters to detail their placement journey in their own way.

All four students covered a great deal of ground, including covering different recruitment processes, inductions, 'a day in the life of a placement', problems and issues encountered and how to deal with them, tips on how to conduct yourself in the workplace, and very importantly, advice to the audience on what can be gained from undertaking a placement. Dr Louise Kettle hosted the presentations and the Q&A and did an amazing job at putting presenters at ease and encouraging participation from the audience.

The Q&A section ran over due to the number of pertinent questions from interested parties. Questions were also put to the placement partners who were in attendance: The City Council, Mojatu Foundation, Go Digit All and Rosie May Foundation. Therefore, all who attended were able to hear about placements advice and expectation direct from placement supervisors as well as from the student presenters.

Keith Morgan, Cycling and Road Space Transformation Team Manager at Nottingham City Council, was really involved in the Q&A and strongly endorsed the importance of events such as this for student engagement: "I spoke to a few students afterwards, some of whom may be interested in work experience next year – so hopefully it will be something which we can keep going!"

Louise Vingert, one of the presenters, also noted, "The following Q&A was a great way to further complement my presentation with more specific details and information aimed to the public's interest. All questions were very relevant and I was very happy to answer them. It demonstrated the audience's interest showing they were as engaged as we were."

The symposium finished with Gillian Murchie from the Careers and Employability Service passing on some expert wisdom on the importance of placements and career focus and how the Careers and Employability Service can support in this new world of working she termed 'the fourth industrial revolution'.

At the post-presentation networking event, there were some great connections made as placement partner organisations got to chat with students interested in taking placements next year. The event finished with some exciting new ventures and placement opportunities planned for October 2017!