Alex’s four job offers before graduating

A wealth of work experience

Alex is starting his career with multinational professional services company Turner and Townsend. He is joining their Graduate Project Manager scheme to enable him to further develop his project management skills.

And he is clear what made him so popular among employers. He believes the work experience he gained through his course, and taking part in our DRIVEN internship scheme and our Futures Awards contributed to his success.

He says: “The University are going above and beyond to put us students into contact with real corporate business that we see and use on a day-to-day basis. It provides students with that extra drive, determination, and excitement to do well.”

Meeting the managers

During his time at university, Alex was able to take part in two internship schemes. These enabled him to gain his Bronze Futures Award, which recognises co-curricular, employability-related activities. Students are able to gain the award by completing elements such as their hours worked, webinars, workshops and employer presentations, and a reflection/assessment of these activities.

Alex also took part in a fieldtrip to Chatsworth House, the Derbyshire country estate and visitor attraction. He was able to speak to the management team to understand how Chatsworth as a business is run.

He also went on a fieldtrip to St George’s Park in Staffordshire, the home of the Football Association and where the England football teams train. During his visit to St George’s Park, Alex was able to meet with managers of the Football Association to determine any weaknesses and areas of key growth in the business. This allowed Alex to propose a project for them to tackle any current business problems.

Support to succeed

Alex credits the support – and thoughtfulness – of his lecturers with helping him to achieve success on the course.

He explains: “The passion really shows in the teaching and learning experience. For example, in one of my modules, my tutor put all of the suggested reading in weekly sections so you knew exactly what to read what week. This may seem like something little but it really demonstrated to me how much effort your tutors put in to facilitate your success."