As part of my degree program at Swansea University, I was encouraged to apply for a 12-month internship to boost my degree and practical experience. I always knew that I wanted to complete a placement year before starting university, but in what organisation and industry, I wasn’t sure.
During my second-year module, Digital and Social Media Marketing, the director of Copper Bay Creative came into the university as a guest lecturer. His talk about the business and digital marketing really caught my attention and made me think about working for a small organisation within my placement year. After the talk, I spoke to Ben about completing a 12-month industry placement at Copper Bay and how I was really interested in applying theory of digital marketing to real practical work.
After emailing my CV, Ben called me into the office for an interview. Later that week I had an email confirming I had the placement, which I was extremely happy about.
Universities tend to push students to apply for large company placements in big cities. However, for me working in a small organisation has been so much more beneficial in building up my confidence in practical industry knowledge. I have learnt not only about digital marketing put also how small businesses work, admin roles, account management, Photoshop skills, video recording/editing and many more skills that I can transfer into many different jobs.
After my amazing professional learning experience at Copper Bay Creative, I always tell students to consider applying to SMEs as well as large organisations. This is because students get involved more with the business and have a bigger impact on the overall company and department success.
Due to the success of my placement year, I still work at Copper Bay Creative part time in my final year of university studies, continuously developing my digital and professional skills.
