Holly Brock

I’ve been amazed at how much real-life experience we get on this degree. We learn how to think and act like we’re working in a genuine marketing agency, with real briefs and actual clients. Everything we learn is transferable to the workplace, I had no idea the course would be as practical and hands-on as it is.

I’ve been lucky to do a couple of excellent placements during the course. The first was at Lift, a finance company. It is quite a small company so I got to do a bit of everything – updating the website, writing reports and blogs and scheduling social media posts. It was a good opportunity to put theory into practice and use the skills I’d learnt on the course in a real working environment which helped to put it into context.

The opportunity to work with Booths supermarket was one of the highlights of the course. The project was to raise awareness of Booths’ commitment to sustainability.

The project was done exactly as if we worked for a marketing agency. We were given a brief by the store manager, then had to apply what we had learnt on the course to produce a multi-channel campaign. We had to present our ideas to the client at the end, which was nerve-wracking, but we gained so much from the whole experience.

Everything on the course is done with one eye on the job market. You can write an essay about planning a campaign, but to have the opportunity to take a brief, work up a campaign and present it to the client is so much more valuable.

The best thing about university is discovering new skills and talents I didn’t know I had. And finding out what my strengths are. I now know that I work well in a team and can perform under pressure – skills that are essential for working in marketing.