Applying for placements is competitive process therefore, in addition to one-to-one support, we offer a PPY Training Programme which is embedded in year 1 and 2 of your course. The sessions are designed to be interactive and immersive and are run by the Careers and Placement Teams, academic staff and employers.
Professional Placement Training is important and your attendance at each session is crucial not only to ensure that you are ready for the competition ahead, but that you are fully prepared for when you start!
The Professional Placement training will help you to:
- Be inspired by returning placement students who will share their stories and top tips
- The sessions will help you identify areas of interest for your placement year, how to write a great application and prepare you for interviews and assessment centres.
- Help you identify and explore areas of interest and how best to search for opportunities that suit your skills and interests
- Build your placement ‘toolkit’ including CVs, LinkedIn profile, applications and cover letters
- Practice to get you in a position of readiness for your recruitment tests, interviews and assessment centres
- Get ready for the placement experience itself and learn some professional skills to help you hit the ground running
Professional Placement Year Online Training
We recognise that the life of a student tends to be a busy one. To provide further support and more flexible learning, we have created a suite of online training sessions to complement the face-to-face training. The sessions are available through a Blackboard organisation and all students on a course with a professional placement year will be automatically enrolled at the start of the year.
As we have changed all our student-facing services to fully digital services, the PPY Online Training provides a vital source of support and advice. In addition to the suite of online training sessions, see below, we have also established a peer-to-peer supporter network to enable you to contact students currently on a placement or those who have recently completed one.
This allows you to gain insight and advice from students who have experience from a similar placement to one you are hoping to do.
The sessions provide an important foundation to your placement journey and include:
• What placements can I do?
• CVs
• Cover Letters
• Applications
• Interview Skills
We have recently launched an online discussion forum, where you can interact with other year 1 and 2 students to discuss a range of topics, challenges, concerns and of course, share your achievements! Staff from the Placements Team and our PPY Ambassadors will be on hand to answer any questions but do support each other too.
If you are interested in a placement year and would like access to the online training, please email placements@reading.ac.uk and we will be happy to arrange this.