Work experience helped Danny Waine gain new skills and decide his career path. He explains how it worked.
It is one of the Government’s main policies to help young people struggling to find work, by creating 100,000 work placements over the next two years – the idea being that it will encourage people to gain sufficient skills to boost their CV.
This is good news, not only for the employer, who will benefit from a more motivated and dedicated workforce but for the employee who will have the opportunity to improve and expand their skill set, in turn increasing their chances of employability.
Danny Waine, marketing director at Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons, and a former student of Newcastle Business School, looks at the value of work placements and the added advantage they bring to improving employability.
Danny graduated from Newcastle Business School in 2007 with a BA (Hons) degree in Travel and Tourism Management.
During my time at Newcastle Business School, I gained invaluable experience through my one year work placement - where I met my current business partner, Helen Doyle, working as a sales consultant for a luxury tour operator in London - Planet Holidays, offering package holidays to Cyprus, Greece and Egypt.
The small size of the company worked to my advantage, giving me the chance to try out a number of different jobs around the organisation, from maintaining and developing the website, handling customer feedback, brochure stock ordering and building a new company database.
Set up by myself and Helen in 2005, Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons Ltd is an internet-based business and comprises of a number of niche divisions offering services to wedding and honeymoon couples across the UK.
"My work placement offered me enough insight to start making some career decisions."Despite the recession, our company has more than doubled its turnover during the last 12 months and exceeded £1m in sales during 2010. Helen and I were fortunate enough to also secure a £100,000 Dragon's Den-style investment from four travel industry entrepreneurs to help us develop and grow our business.
Before embarking on my one year work placement, I was very unsure as to where my career path would lead. I was encouraged by my mentor at Newcastle Business School to take a year out and although sceptical at first, I followed her advice and in hindsight I am so grateful I did, as it opened up a plethora of opportunities which led me to where I am today.
The experience I gained during my placement offered me enough insight to start making some career decisions – and I knew I wanted to be part of the travel and tourism industry. The benefits of work placements are two-fold:
- They offer a taster for a particular career path.
- They allow people to build on their existing skills set, increasing their chances of employment.
Other benefits that work experience can bring to the highly competitive job market place include:
- Commercial acumen and occupational awareness.
- Networking opportunities.
- The opportunity to apply academic learning in the workplace.
Employers greatly value candidates who can demonstrate that they have gained relevant experience and have learned from this. Work placements can help demonstrate that you have already achieved a certain level of competence, therefore increasing your chances of employability.
At Newcastle Business School, around 70 students studying Business Management, Marketing, Marketing and Management, Business Management and Economics undertook a 12 month work placement with companies such as L’Oreal, IBM, HSBC and Disney.
Since leaving Newcastle Business School, I have used the experience and knowledge that I gained on my work placement along with what I learnt on my travel and tourism course and I’ve put it in to practice on a daily basis.
It is difficult to appreciate at the time how relevant what you are being taught actually is. I’ve always wanted to work in the travel industry but I didn’t have sufficient knowledge to be sure. Since graduating I’ve started to understand more how invaluable this business knowledge is.
The lecturer's perspective
Bridget Major, principal lecturer and programme director in marketing, travel and tourism management at Newcastle Business School, concludes: "With the job market being so tough and competitive, the importance of work experience and enterprise has never been greater. At Newcastle Business School, we encourage students, like Danny, to consider a year in industry to allow them to not only have a taster of working life but more importantly, boost their skills set before embarking on a career.
"To ensure people’s needs are being met and the right skills are employed, I would urge people to take time out to focus and exercise their abilities, in a working environment, to help decipher what their core strengths are in turn helping them increase their chances of employment in the future."
Danny Waine is marketing director at Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons.
