Every student on our postgraduate event course spends three months (of their six-month course) in a work placement. We help our students and their preferred events organisations come together in a perfect match. Our aim is to place each student in an organisation that not only suits their career ambitions but will also challenge and prepare them for work.
We also need to ensure that the organisation within which they receive their work experience placement benefits from their knowledge, confidence and experience from the first day they are there.
This approach is a win-win for both the student and their placement company/potential employer. Only by gaining real-life work experience can students gain the necessary insights and experiences that will give them the edge over others in the hunt for a job. The practical skills and insights that they will have learned on our course make our Postgraduate students an invaluable resource for the placement companies.
The majority of our students opt to be placed in either event agencies, charities, venues or within sports management/festival companies. Each of these types of organisation comes with slightly different roles and challenges for a placement student, though they are very likely to be working at the coal face in production and project management.
Students are typically thrown into the deep end on a new project, dealing with everything from budgets, client liaison, running orders to sales, technical plans and marketing.
Event management within an agency often means that you’re effectively right in the middle, handling everything relating to the client’s event – including their money. You have to help the client design the experiences that will suit them, their audience and their budget as well as carefully managing the relationship from inception to delivery. This is a challenge of interpersonal skills, confidence, emotional intelligence and diplomacy as much as it is about creative ideas and production.
Within a charity or festival project; you may end up being both the client and the event manager, but that doesn’t mean you are going to be completely unrestricted. Placement students working within charities should also expect to have to deal with the nuances that fundraising and charitable status infer. Thinking of a lavish ‘My Sweet 16’ inspired bash to raise funds for the NSPCC? That might not be appropriate. Fundraising is a difficult job, but ultimately, when done well, it can be highly rewarding.
If you’re thinking about pursuing a work experience position in a venue, you will inevitably be expected to get know it’s facilities, suppliers, and legislation (including health & safety and risk assessments) inside and out. Venues come with their own challenges.
Overall, each work experience placement will come with its own challenges and career path, so if you’re unsure which direction you might see yourself heading our course advisors are always available to help.
Interested in studying on our postgraduate course? Check it out here.
