www.lboro.ac.

uk/sbe
School of Business and Economics

A guide to placements

THE TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES AMONG JUST 1% OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS IN

PROFESSIONAL PLACEMENTS
GOOD UNIVERSITY GUIDE 2017 THE WORLD TO HOLD AACSB, EQUIS AND
ON ALL COURSES
TOP 10 UK BUSINESS SCHOOL AMBA ACCREDITATION
Loughborough University School of Business and Economics

Welcome
Loughborough University’s School of Business and Triple accreditation
Economics is a vibrant, forward-looking centre of The School of Business and Economics is one of
education. Consistently rated as one of the UK’s less than 1% of business schools in the world to
Top-10 business schools by national league tables, we have achieved accreditation from all three major
are internationally recognised for our research-informed international accrediting bodies: The Association
teaching and commercially relevant courses. to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB
International), the Association of MBAs (AMBA), and
All of our courses combine theory with practice to EQUIS accreditation from the European Foundation for
ensure our highly motivated students are equipped to Management Development (EFMD).
succeed in today’s rapidly changing international
business environment. These prestigious accolades represent a stamp of quality
for the School, its programmes, teaching, facilities and
Commercially relevant teachings research. They certify the courses offered as being
Our undergraduate degrees are continually monitored internationally recognised and as giving our students the
to ensure they meet the exacting demands of employers, very best knowledge-base and skillset for the future.
and many of them have been developed in partnership
with industry and commerce. Ford, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose Pioneers of the placement scheme
and Barclays are just a few examples of companies who We were one of the first business schools to include
have helped to fund our current undergraduate degrees: a year-long placement as a mandatory part of its
• Accounting and Financial Management undergraduate degree courses and have a long history
• Banking, Finance and Management of placing students in top businesses throughout the
UK, including big name companies like 3M, IBM, Lloyds
• Information Management and Business
Bank, Microsoft, PwC, Waitrose and Walt Disney, to name
• International Business a few. Nowadays, the School of Business and Economics
• Management Sciences has a dedicated Placements Office that works with 400+
• Retailing, Marketing and Management organisations around the globe, helping to place high
• Economics calibre students in industry for up to a year.
• Economics and Management
• Business Economics and Finance At Loughborough we believe that a salaried professional
• International Economics placement offers our undergraduates priceless
work experience that helps to prepare them for
• Economics with Accounting
graduate employment, improve their performance and
• Economics with Geography understanding in their final year and set them apart
• Economics with Politics to future employers. That is why all of our business
and economics degree courses have the opportunity to
include a professional placement as an integral part of
the degree between the second and final year.

Key features of a placement

—
• Paid employment with a minimum duration of
“With such a strong emphasis on placements at Loughborough, the level of 45 working weeks, excluding holiday
professionalism of students by the time they graduate is also evident. This sets • Commencing sometime between July and September
them apart and off to a flying start to a successful career with us!” • Students apply the theories and techniques learned
— during the first two years at university, develop their
Student Recruitment Advisor, Deloitte LLP intellectual and practical skills, enhance their future
employability and contribute to your bottom line

TOP-10 UK THE TIMES AND SUNDAY THE TIMES AND SUNDAY

BUSINESS SCHOOL TIMES GOOD UNIVERSITY TIMES GOOD UNIVERSITY
CONSISTENTLY RATED GUIDE 2017 GUIDE 2017
BY NATIONAL LEAGUE RANKED 4TH FOR RANKED 6TH FOR
TABLES ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS STUDIES
FINANCE
02 03
Loughborough University School of Business and Economics

How does a placement Placement case study

benefit you?
Outstanding students that provide When coupled with the research-led commercially
invaluable contributions relevant teaching that Loughborough provides, our
Employers around the world choose to take on our students go on to become skilled individuals with the
placement students for the following qualities: ability to succeed in any workplace: 98% of our business
students and 97% of our economics students were in
• A strong academic background
employment or further study six months after graduation*.
• New ideas and an ability to look at old problems with
fresh eyes
• Inspiration to other staff Extended interview process
• Keen problem-solving and analytical skills A 12 month placement can be seen as an extended
• Presentation skills interview, with a view to recruiting that student after
• Up-to-date IT skills graduation. Around 35% of our students receive an offer
• Flexibility towards change of graduate employment from their placement company.
• A readiness to tackle one-off projects or The placement student of today will become the manager
management problems of tomorrow and, in partnership with Loughborough
• Team working skills University, you can help the student to maximise his or
• Support and guidance for the student and the employer her potential.
by an experienced professional placement team.
It is widely recognised that a year-long placement
You can therefore be sure that recruiting one of our period helps students to develop specific work-related
students not only provides them with an invaluable skills, by giving them the opportunity to put theory
into practice, take on managerial responsibilities and
experience and helps them to develop specific work-
related skills, but will also provide your company with an enhance their interpersonal skills through teamwork and ELLA VEGA
individual who has the skills and determination to learn, communication. More generally, the placement allows
students to experience workplace culture. DEGREE PROGRAMME: RETAILING, MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT
help and succeed.
COMPANY: TANGLE TEEZER
The School of Business and Economics attracts the All of the above factors help to make students JOB ROLE: GLOBAL MARKETING ASSISTANT
very highest calibre of A level students, with each of our more effective employees when they graduate. As a
undergraduate courses often being oversubscribed for consequence, a significant (and increasing) number
of organisations use the placement year as part of Roles and achievements
places and only the very best applicants accepted.
their overall graduate recruitment programme. Many • Responsible for managing company’s largest retail
companies also view placements as an opportunity to account – Boots UK —
build strategic links with Loughborough University. • Persuaded Boots to increase the number of product “She has set a wonderful example to
lines from 6 to 12 us as a company of engaging with a
• Increased revenue by £1.4M placement student – we had never
• Refocused Tangle Teezer’s 2015 Trade Marketing plan to done it before… She will have an
online marketing exceptional career.”
UP TO 35% OF OUR • Re-launched the brand into a French retailer, Sephora —
STUDENTS RETURN Gemma Clarke
• Increased sales in the whole of France by 82.3%
TO THEIR PLACEMENT Chief Marketing Officer, Tangle Teezer
COMPANY AFTER GRADUATION • Awarded the Dean’s Award for Employability at the
annual SBE Awards Dinner for staff, students and alumni

1700+ —
UNDERGRADUATE
STUDENTS “We have worked with a number of Loughborough students from a variety of courses, and
FROM AROUND THE WORLD the feedback from managers and teams has been extremely positive. Placement students
add a large amount of value to our organisation – taking on challenging responsibilities
and real projects which directly impact the success of the business. This year’s group
of Loughborough students is no different, and with a great academic foundation before
joining their teams they seem determined to make the most out of their opportunity.”
COMPULSORY PLACEMENT
—
ON FIVE OF OUR BUSINESS
Morgan Stanley
DEGREE COURSES FCG Operations Officer

04 *DHLE, 2016 (UK/EU graduates in full-time paid employment within six months) 05
Loughborough University School of Business and Economics

Placement case study What type of placement

can you offer?
The very nature of management as a function, and the Ideally, the placement period should be preceded by a
diverse needs and interests of our students, makes it brief induction stage when the student can observe the
impossible to set out a ‘typical’ placement programme. entire range of activities undertaken by your business,
and the relationship of his or her work experience to the
Students expect to be given a ‘real’ job with all the business as a whole.
attendant challenges, responsibilities and problems
that this may entail. In general terms, the jobs may be How we support you during the placement year
described as: Each student is allocated a visiting tutor, a member of
• Participatory: students join a team that takes part in the academic staff from the School of Business and
a variety of tasks within one or more departments Economics, who will visit the company on at least one
• Project based: students are assigned a series of occasion. During the visit the tutor will typically talk
supervised projects in which the intellectual challenge separately with both the student and the supervisor
and other demands are progressively increased assigned by the employing organisation. The purpose
• Supervisory: students are primarily responsible for of these visits is to maintain contact with all parties,
the duties of other people to satisfy the tutor that the work being undertaken is
• Set role: students join a particular department, appropriate and that the student is making an effective
such as finance, marketing, etc. contribution to the organisation.

The best kind of training is when companies treat Additionally, specialist staff in the School’s Placements
students similarly to new graduates, fitting them Office are always available to contact for support,
naturally into the organisation, assigning responsibilities guidance and information.
RYAN BOORMAN and expecting results. This should be done with an
appropriate level of support to the student, particularly
DEGREE PROGRAMME: ECONOMICS WITH GEOGRAPHY during the initial stages of the placement. Often,
COMPANY: EY placement students can be required or encouraged
JOB ROLE: ASSURANCE – UK&I FIDS TRAINEE to undertake professional or regulatory qualifications
during their placement year.

Roles and achievements —

• Worked on a variety of client facing projects “Ryan performed at a very high level
• Took on a leading role on a CPO proposal throughout his placement, demonstrated
producing work to an executive level by consistently strong feedback from his
• Helped contribute to the growth in net revenue engagements. He exceeded expectations and
of over 300% from the previous financial year
the level of performance demonstrated by his
• Received 11 Impact Awards based on his peers and he conducted himself in a mature
outstanding performance within Winning in the
Market, People, Quality and Operations and professional manner, communicating well
• Secured a graduate role at EY
with clients and those he worked with.”
• Attended external networking events including
—
Tom Wallbank
The EY Annual Dinner EY

—
“The range of work I was able to get involved with... has
accelerated my academic and personal development. I was
particularly proud to receive strong formal feedback from two
external key contacts at a Young CPA event.”
—
Ryan Boorman
Economics with Geography

06 07
Loughborough University School of Business and Economics

Recruiting a placement student Business links

The following diagram illustrates the typical calendar of What does it cost? We work with over 400 employers of all sizes around the world from a wide spectrum of industries offering a variety of
events for placement recruitment during the second year Most organisations have a standard rate of pay for placement opportunities to our undergraduates. Here are just a few of them:
of the student’s university course: placement students. It is expected that students will be
paid enough to meet all reasonable expenses, and hence Accenture (consulting) Mars (sales and purchasing, marketing)
Students have a responsibility to secure a placement for will be free of financial worry during the placement. Adidas UK & Germany (marketing) Marks & Spencer (business management, store operation,
their third year. However, the Placements Office provides Placement students do not receive any grant from public Apple (finance, marketing) trainee commercial manager)
employers with considerable assistance as required in funds during their year in industry, but are charged a BAE Systems (finance, human resources) Mercedes Benz UK (procurement)
securing the right students by advertising and promoting top-up fee by the University to cover the administration of BMW (marketing, sales) Microsoft (marketing, sales PR, finance, business analyst)
available positions, identifying and targeting suitable the Diploma in Professional Studies that the placement Boots (business analysis, supply chain and logistics, in- Mondelez (statistics, supply chain and logistics)
candidates, arranging interviews at the University, earns them. The salary is a matter for discussion between store marketing, finance, commercial, store management) Morgan Stanley, UK & Germany (finance, operations, fixed
collating applications and liaising with students. The student and employer. Typical salary levels can be BSkyB (finance, corporate PR) income derivatives)
Placements Team can help you as much or as little as discussed with the Placements Manager. Capital Economics (economist role) Nike UK & The Netherlands (inventory and billing, retail
you need throughout the recruitment process. brand presentation)
Danone (finance, logistics, marketing)
Nomura (operations, finance)
Deloitte UK & Europe (audit, tax, consulting, technology)
North Highland (management consultancy)
Debenhams (buying, merchandising, marketing,
CHRISTMAS BREAK (3 WEEKS) EASTER BREAK (4 WEEKS) e-commerce) PSA Peugeot Citroen (commercial, marketing, human
resources, PR and sales)
Decathlon, UK & Shanghai (finance, communications,
department manager) PwC UK, Channel Islands & Hong Kong (consulting
OCTOBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MAY JUNE technology, forensics, assurance, audit, human
Deutsche Bank (global markets, asset management, resources, tax)
group technology and operations)
Semester 1 Exams Semester 2 Semester 2 Exams Porsche (business development)
Duff & Phelps (corporate recovery and restructuring)
Rolls-Royce (purchasing, project management, finance)
E.ON UK Ltd (audit, demand forecasting)
Applications/Interviews/ Interviews/ Toyota (brand assistant, training academy)
Applications/Interviews EY (audit, forensic accounting)
Assessment Centres Assessment Centres TUI Travel (commercial, PR)
GE Capital (finance, sourcing)
UBS (derivatives, risk, global asset management, client
PLACEMENT BEGINS GlaxoSmithKline (quality, risk and compliance, sales and relationship management)
marketing, human resources, IT, supply chain, finance)
Unilever (business and technology management, supply
Goldman Sachs (operations, risk management) chain management)
Grant Thornton (audit, personal tax, recovery) Vauxhall Motors (human resources, sales, business
HP (marketing, sales support, business analyst) management, operations)

How it all works IBM UK & Hong Kong (marketing, sales support, business
analytics, project administration, business continuity)
ICAP (accounting, global broking)
Volkswagen (operations, planning, marketing, retail
operations)
Walt Disney (sales and commercial, consumer products,
Intel Corporation (finance, marketing, business analysts) finance, marketing, forecasting and planning)
The student is employed as a full-time temporary The student’s responsibility to you Living Bridge (research analyst) Warner Bros (sales, marketing, human resources,
employee with your normal Terms and Conditions of publicity)
• To approach his or her work diligently, to take Johnson & Johnson (sales, marketing)
service, but is still registered as a full-time student with responsibility and display a willingness to learn and to Xerox Ltd (sales and marketing, finance, events, project
KPMG (accounting) co-ordinator)
the University. In addition to their placement role, the use initiative L’Oreal (supply chain, marketing and sales, commercial,
student will also be working towards the Diploma in • To act within the Terms and Conditions of Employment category management)
Professional Studies (DPS). laid down by you
• To behave in an appropriate professional manner and to
The DPS respect the culture of your workplace
To obtain the DPS the student must complete: • To respect the confidentiality of the employing
• Minimum 45 weeks on placement in a business/ organisation
management related position • To take reasonable care of his or her own health and
• A competent performance of duties on placement safety, and that of other people who may be affected by
evidenced by 2 employer appraisals his or her actions
• Reflective written work and a dissertation in agreement
with and signed off by the employer. This work is Features of a good placement
completed in the student’s own time. It should be noted • A planned programme of work and training compatible
that any company information contained in the student’s with the student’s level of knowledge, experience and
written work will be treated as confidential by the expectations
student and the University • Opportunities for the student to gain an understanding
of the business and to develop business competencies
At the beginning of the placement, employers will be and interpersonal skills
provided with a pack of information about the placement • An induction period at the start of the placement
year and the DPS. Students have online access to detailed • Student assigned a suitable supervisor and/or mentor
information about the placement year and are expected
to provide their employer with information about the DPS
process as required.

08 09
Loughborough University School of Business and Economics

Placement case study Other opportunities in the

School of Business and Economics
With over 40 years experience of delivering management Sponsorship opportunities
education we pride ourselves in supporting business With organisations more than ever aware of their
through challenging, career-enhancing management and corporate social responsibility, there has never been a
leadership development, cutting edge research, and the better time to become a sponsor. From sponsoring whole
promotion of innovation and enterprise. programmes or specific modules to student prizes and
scholarships, sponsorship can help you raise your brand
We strive to develop effective leaders and young awareness through our stakeholder communications,
entrepreneurs, enhance organisational performance and connect with our students (who could be your future
promote sustainable growth – addressing the ‘real world’ employees), ensure graduates have up-to-date business
challenges facing businesses and policy makers in our skills, and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with
rapidly changing global economy. the university.

Research and consultancy Executive education

As one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities With an enviable history of well-established links with
we pride ourselves on conducting ‘research that matters’. business, the School of Business and Economics is known
Organisations that need innovative solutions to new for challenging, career-enhancing programmes that
problems come to us for our expertise in combining deliver real value to individuals and organisations.
academic rigour with practical relevance. Fields of
expertise range from HRM and Information Management Work with us to transform your practice.
and Business Analytics to International Business and
Strategy, and Marketing and Retailing. Contact:
Vicki Unwin
Please see www.lboro.ac.uk/sbe for a full list of our T: 01509 222160
areas of research expertise. E: [email protected]

Executive Education partners include:

MADELINE BOULTON
DEGREE PROGRAMME: RETAILING, MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT
COMPANY: UNILEVER
JOB ROLE: ASSISTANT BRAND MANAGER, ICE CREAM, IRELAND

Roles and achievements

• Project managed the revival of the 1980’s ice
cream Freaky Foot
• Responsible for approving shape and taste —
• Travelled to Lisbon to sign off production “One of Madeline’s highlights was the
• Set up a reactive WhatsApp group to improve work she did on regenerating the social
responsiveness to viral trends media campaign…and the UK team is
• This enabled a Tweet relating to the Blue/Black Dress already using her model to regenerate
debate to reach 10.1 million people
their campaign.”
• Managed the Magnum Pink and Black launch campaign
—
• Responsible for the campaign budget and for working Nigel Thompson, Senior Marketing Manager
with creative agencies to develop PR designs Ice Cream, Ireland
• Led to Magnum sales increasing by 32.9%
• Offered a place on the Unilever marketing
Graduate Scheme

10 11
 TIMES HIGHER
EDUCATION STUDENT
EXPERIENCE SURVEY
BRITAIN’S BEST
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
OVER THE LAST
10 YEARS 2007-2017

General enquiries
Placements Office
School of Business and Economics @lboroSBEplcmnts
Loughborough University
Leicestershire LE11 3TU /placementofficesbe

/lborouniversity
E: [email protected]
69773/CPS/Sept17