Bath uni business placements

Hi everyone,
I've got a couple questions regarding the placements in the business course at Bath.
Firstly, how does accommodation work when you are at a placement, and when you come back from one? Is it organised by the uni or do you have to find them yourself?
Secondly, how involved is the uni with helping you find placements? Is it a lot of effort or is it not very complicated?
Kind regards,
Hidde

Original post by Hidde.vdp

Hi everyone,
I've got a couple questions regarding the placements in the business course at Bath.
Firstly, how does accommodation work when you are at a placement, and when you come back from one? Is it organised by the uni or do you have to find them yourself?
Secondly, how involved is the uni with helping you find placements? Is it a lot of effort or is it not very complicated?
Kind regards,
Hidde

Hi Hidde,

I am a current Bath student on placement, so hopefully I can be of some help! :smile:

Accommodation
To make it clearer, I'll break down how accommodation works throughout your degree:

•

1st Year - you live in university run halls, either on campus or in the city centre. You apply for these once you receive an offer and pay rent to the university. I do believe some students choose to live in private accommodation or at home in 1st year, but the majority live in halls.

•

2nd Year - you find private accommodation. This could be privately run student halls (which are usually pretty expensive), but most people opt for landlord or agency run housing. In this case, you'd look for houses on housing/rental websites such as RightMove and Zoopla around January of 1st year, go to viewings, sign a contract then live there for the year.

•

Placement year - This really depends on your placement, but it is organised yourself (not by the uni). Some placement providers provide you with accommodation, or connect you with other placement students or people in the area that you could live with. In a lot of cases, its the same process as for 2nd year accommodation whereby you have to find private accommodation yourself in the area. A lot of people will find flats with other students doing the same placement, or students doing placements in the same area. The uni can assist with finding other students to live with, as they have a website where you can put in the area of your placement and it'll give you contact details for students who are also going to be in the same area so you can contact them.

•

Final year - the same process as 2nd year accommodation.

Essentially, only your 1st year accommodation is organised by the university.

Uni Involvement in Finding Placements
The uni is great at supporting you in finding placements, as the placements programme is an esteemed part of Bath courses. Throughout first year, you will attend placement "training" sessions, so to speak, where you are taught how to write a good CV, how to do interviews, skills/aptitude tests, how to find placements through the uni database and so on.

In the summer between 1st and 2nd year, you write you CV and send drafts to the uni placements team. They will check it and send back any notes so you can keep amending and improving it.

When you come back for 2nd year, you start applying for placements. Some students get their early on in the year around November, others will only get theirs in August - it really just depends. It isn't a LOT of effort per se, as the university guides and supports you a lot, but it is essentially just like applying for a job. You search through the uni database of placement advertisements, and then apply for any you like the look of. This can vary by placement though. For my placement, I only had to attend an interview, whereas I have friends who had to do a phone interview, face-to-face interview, aptitude test and formal job application. It really just depends on the placement, but the placement team is excellent in supporting you throughout, and it's definitely worth it in the end!

Please let me know if you have any other questions, and I hope this has helped :smile:

Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Reply 2

Hidde.vdp

OP

3

Hi Jessica,
Thank you very much for the information.
For the business degree which I have an offer for, there are two 6 month placements (one in first semester second year and one in second semester third year), and I was wondering how that would work with getting accommodation at the start of second year, and what to do with the accommodation when we are at our placements?
Thanks,
Hidde

Original post by Hidde.vdp

Hi Jessica,
Thank you very much for the information.
For the business degree which I have an offer for, there are two 6 month placements (one in first semester second year and one in second semester third year), and I was wondering how that would work with getting accommodation at the start of second year, and what to do with the accommodation when we are at our placements?
Thanks,
Hidde

Hi Hidde,

No problem at all :smile:

Apologies, I didn't realise you meant two 6 month placements. There are 2 potential options here:

- You could find a rental property in Bath for 6 month of the year, and a rental property where your placement is for 6 months. This is a bit more difficult as 6 month tenancies are harder to find than 12 month tenancies.

- The more common choice is that you rent a house for 12 months in Bath. You live there for 6 months, then you move into whatever accommodation you have where your placement is for the next 6 months and another group of students takes over the final 6 months of your house in Bath. Essentially, you and another group of students "trade" houses 6 months through the year.

These 2 scenarios may vary depending on the placement. For example, your placement provider may provide you with accommodation, so you would only need to find a house in Bath, not where you placement is. The accommodation process is a bit more confusing when it's two 6 month placements, so I'd suggest contacting the Head of Placements for that course, Ben Smith, at this email: [email protected]. He should be able to give you a more in depth, or clearer explanation than I can.

All in all though, the placements team explains how the process works when you are doing the training sessions in first year, and they'll support you fully when sorting out accommodation, so there's no need for you to worry too much about it now :smile:

I hope this has helped,
Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Reply 4

Hidde.vdp

OP

3

Original post by University of Bath

Hi Hidde,

No problem at all :smile:

Apologies, I didn't realise you meant two 6 month placements. There are 2 potential options here:

- You could find a rental property in Bath for 6 month of the year, and a rental property where your placement is for 6 months. This is a bit more difficult as 6 month tenancies are harder to find than 12 month tenancies.

- The more common choice is that you rent a house for 12 months in Bath. You live there for 6 months, then you move into whatever accommodation you have where your placement is for the next 6 months and another group of students takes over the final 6 months of your house in Bath. Essentially, you and another group of students "trade" houses 6 months through the year.

These 2 scenarios may vary depending on the placement. For example, your placement provider may provide you with accommodation, so you would only need to find a house in Bath, not where you placement is. The accommodation process is a bit more confusing when it's two 6 month placements, so I'd suggest contacting the Head of Placements for that course, Ben Smith, at this email: [email protected]. He should be able to give you a more in depth, or clearer explanation than I can.

All in all though, the placements team explains how the process works when you are doing the training sessions in first year, and they'll support you fully when sorting out accommodation, so there's no need for you to worry too much about it now :smile:

I hope this has helped,
Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Thank you very much for your help :smile:

Hidde

Original post by Hidde.vdp

Thank you very much for your help :smile:

Hidde

Hi Hidde,

No problem, I'm glad I could help :smile:

Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Reply 6

eliotrasia

1

Original post by Hidde.vdp

Thank you very much for your help :smile:

Hidde

The uni is great at supporting you in finding placements, as the placements programme is an esteemed part of Bath courses. Throughout first year, you will attend placement "training" sessions, so to speak, where you are taught how to write a good CV, how to do interviews, skills/aptitude tests, how to find placements through the uni database and so on.

Bath uni business placements

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