Undergraduate study
Professional Placements
All of our five undergraduate degrees in Business have an integral placement year, providing salaried management experience that sets our graduates apart.
Watch the VideoIf you are a company and are interested in recruiting our students for professional placements, please visit the information for companies page.
Professional Placements
The School of Business and Economics prides itself on its extremely relevant, practical approach to education: reflected in the most contemporary case studies and supporting materials, and in its long-standing history of placements on all business and management undergraduate degree programmes.
The Strengths of a Loughborough Placement
We were one of the first business schools to include a year-long professional placement as part of our undergraduate degree programmes. We now have one of the best records for placing students in top businesses throughout Britain, regularly placing students in top companies such as Microsoft, Thompson Reuters, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Toyota, HSBC, 3M and Rolls Royce.
Our reputation for producing excellent graduates ensures that many companies specifically target the School of Business and Economics for placement students, and we regularly place 100 per cent of our students, although placements are not guaranteed and are achieved against strong competition. A significant proportion of our students are offered a permanent job with their placement employer after graduation, and some companies sponsor students in their final year of study following a successful placement.
Our students usually stay with the same company for the whole year, rather than do several shorter placements with different companies. We believe that this approach allows our students to develop within their placement company and be given real responsibility for their own projects whilst on their year out. Our final year students return to us with significantly better business experience and more developed skills than if they had completed two shorter, taster placements of six months. This in turn allows our final year material to build further on this experience and give our graduates the cutting edge in the graduate recruitment process.
Placement students are typically paid a salary by their employing organisation during their placement year. Satisfactory completion of the placement results in the award of a Diploma of Professional Studies on graduation.
The Benefits of a Year Out
All Business and Management students are offered the opportunity in their third year to either study abroad, combine their study abroad with a shorter placement or develop their skills with a year-long placement at one company. Every year we see the benefits of this, and every year the returning students demonstrate the value of their experience. The year-long placement helps students to develop valuable work-related skills, such as teamwork and communication skills, by becoming an established member of an organisation. The Placement Year will also increases student self-confidence and allows for a more mature outlook.
Taking place in the third year of our four-year BSc programmes, the Placement Year provides indispensable first-hand experience of the specific job function, company and industry you choose, enriching your understanding of how business really works before you enter the job market as a graduate. The placement is an opportunity to “test-drive” a career.
Whilst on placement, students are afforded the opportunity to put into practice some of the theory learnt in the first two years of their degree programme, and to take on managerial responsibilities. The final year completes the degree, building both on the first two years of study and also on the placement year. As a result, as a graduate of Loughborough University School of Business and Economics, students will have a significant competitive advantage when entering the job market.
The best thing about my degree programme was the opportunity to spend a year in an industrial placement. For my year out, I worked for Insolvency and Turnaround specialists, Kroll. I earned a very competitive salary and I was offered a graduate job with them once I graduate from Loughborough.
Siobhan Bentley (Accounting and Financial Management graduate)
The actual placement was thoroughly enjoyable. I learnt many new skills and was particularly motivated by the level of responsibility that I was given.
Cathy Allingham (Management Sciences graduate)
Placements are also available within Europe, and International Business degree students are particularly encouraged to seek placements abroad (depending on their language skills).
Helping You During Your Placement
Although it will be your responsibility to find your own placement, we offer significant help and support. Our Placements Office, located on the ground floor of the School, employs three full-time Placement Administrators who are in regular contact with more than 250 organisations around the world. The Placements Office also supports you through the process, including organising seminars in the second year to help you prepare for interviews and the placement itself.
My placement experience has helped me to confirm my decision to focus on Human Resource Management, enabling me to select my final year modules with greater confidence that I was making the right choices. The experience has also helped me to approach my final year of study at university in a more mature manner.
Sarah Bodien (Management Sciences graduate)
For a comprehensive list of our most recent placements, please click on the programme links below:
- Accounting and Financial Management
- Banking, Finance and Management
- International Business
- Management Sciences
- Retail Management
If you’re a student interested in hearing more about our professional placements, or if you’re a company interested in discussing the benefits of placing a Business and Management student, please contact us on 01509 223141 (phone), 01509 223960 (fax) or email BS.Placement.Enquiries@lboro.ac.uk.
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