Why We Love Placement Students at Matillion
Internships and placement programs are a great way to help young minds in the local community get real-life, hands-on experience in their field of study. But students are more than just an extra set of hands for a business. They bring new outlooks, diversity of thought, energy, and modern ways of thinking – an advantage for any company. So we find it a privilege at Matillion to work with students from local universities around Manchester as part of the Matillion Student Placement program.
Similar to student internships in the US, student placement programs in the UK are real work experience gained within a real working environment. But in the UK, placements are a compulsory part of many degree courses. They happen during a student’s third year at university.
Student placements at Matillion
Matillion has great relationships with the University of Manchester and the University of Salford. We employ students in programs like computer science, information systems, business, and more. These areas of study require students to work for a year in their chosen industry.
Typically, these students join Matillion in July and work through the following August – about 14 months total. Fun fact: two of our first placement students that came onboard in 2013 and 2015 are still with Matillion today!
Building relationships, finding future talent
We have sponsored the computer science society and managed many talks at both Manchester and Salford Universities. In October 2018, we had an open day at Manchester University and spoke to 162 students about our company and the tech industry. We also had a “Getting to know Matillion” day at our office where 30 students joined us from both universities.
Students took a tour of the office and learned more about the company and potential functions within Matillion. We hired seven of those 30 students for our student placement program. They work across the organization, in engineering, test, and product.
As the students benefit from the placement program as part of their degree, we at Matillion also benefit greatly from having curious minds joining our team. It is a fantastic opportunity to build relationships with the higher education community in line with our sixth value – ‘We Care About Our People and Our Communities’ – and to create a strong talent pipeline for the future.
‘Thank you’ and ‘welcome aboard’ to our students!
This month we said goodbye to a few of our students – although we hope to be welcoming them back to Matillion when they finish their degrees. Then we welcomed our incoming team.
To our outgoing students: Thank you for all of your hard work. You will be missed!
To our incoming group: Best of luck with your placement year and welcome to #TeamGreen!
Interested in a student placement at Matillion?
For interested students, Matillion will begin recruitment for 2020 student placements with an open day in October 2019. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date on any announcements this fall.
