Danielle has received £100 in House of Fraser vouchers from Hays recruitment agency, after they judged her poster to be the best of ten finalists from BU’s Business School.

Danielle, who spent her placement year as a HR Project Specialist for SAP, a business management software specialist, said: “I’m really pleased and surprised to win.

“Creating the poster helped me put into perspective what I actually learnt on my placement and reflect back on the experience and the skills I learned along the way.”

Winner of the second prize of £75 was fourth year BA (Hons) Finance and Business student Jessica Oliveira, who spent her placement year as a finance controller at Pfizer and in third place – winning £25 – was fourth year BA (Hons) Business Studies student Lucy McDermott, who worked in logistics at Sainsbury’s for her placement year.

The competition was open to all Business School students who completed a placement year, and the winners were chosen from the finalists by Vicky Leredde, Senior Consultant at Hays, Helen Futcher, Business Director at Hays and Professor Dean Patton, Deputy Dean (Enterprise) within the Business School.

Students were asked to sum up their placement year experience – including the contribution they made, achievements and the transferable skills they learnt.

Helen said that it was difficult to decide the winner as the standard of the posters was “very good,” adding that she thought it was a great idea.

“It makes people reflect on what they achieved during the placement year, and helps to look forward to what they can actually add to their CV as a result.”

Dean added that they were looking for the initial impact of the presentation, and the balance between content and presentation, as well as useful information about the skills students learnt on their presentations.

“It wasn’t easy to choose the winners, as all of the presentations were really good,” he said.

This is the second year that the competition has been run and the ten posters created by the finalists will now go on display in university corridors and at BU’s Festival of Learning this summer.

The Business School has more students placed at Disney, IBM and Vauxhall Motors than any other university. Plus, of the 60 internships that Intel recently had available, 13 were offered to BU students. This means that BU students took over 20% of the available places.

BA (Hons) Business Studies student Tom Bettinson is currently on placement in Copenhagen at clothing company Norse Projects. His blog details his exciting experience and even got a mention in H&M Magazine as ‘one to read’!

Read Tom’s blog…

Placement years are now offered to all* BU students, providing a fantastic opportunity to gain experience in their chosen industry. Students have found that having this experience has proved invaluable when looking for graduate employment.

*Across all Schools and subject areas.

What’s more,  one of the teams to make it through to the next stage is the team of first-year BA (Hons) Accounting, Finance and Economics students, which is being sponsored by JPMorgan.

The members of the three teams through are:

1. BA (Hons) Accounting, Finance and Economics first-year students - Daniel Wade (C), Alice Atkey,  Jack Kowalik, Kishan Thakarshi and Amy Veryard
2. BA (Hons) Accounting, Finance and Economics second-year students – Rion Best (C), Simone Buller, Ryan Gale, Michael Gilbert and Cara McFarlane
3. BA (Hons) Business Studies and BA (Hons) Finance & Business final-year students – Nicholas Illes (C), Damien Ashmore, Stephen Doo, Ryan Pestana and Anna Stringer

Participation in the UBC is open to all undergraduate university students in the UK. The UBC puts students on the road to success by developing and enhancing employability & enterprise skills.

BU’s Mark Ridolfo, the Business School Coordinator for the IBM UBC, commented: “The UBC gives students a fantastic opportunity to pit themselves against the best students from around the country, showcase their talents to prospective employers and to put into practice what they have learned on their courses. We regard this as an important competition and are proud to be associated with it.”

We wish all teams well in the Semi-Finals and we will keep the Blog updated.

Further information on the IBM UBC…