During summer 2025, The Scott Partnership (TSP) has welcomed three work placement students into our office to give them first-hand experiences of a busy marketing agency environment and insights into life science PR and communications.
Introducing the placement students
- George: a GCSE student, including Creative Media and Computer Science
- Katie: an A-level student, studying English Literature, English Language and Computer Science
- Gabriella: a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Warwick studying English Literature
With strengths in creativity, computer skills and analytical thinking, each of the students lend themselves to different aspects of the marketing industry and the ever-evolving role of a marketer.
George
I chose my placement at TSP because I enjoy working on digital graphics, which is a big part of marketing, this includes designing and creating videos.
My initial expectations of the placement were limited so I was unsure if it was going to appeal to me. Despite this, my time at TSP was an enjoyable experience.
During the week I worked on two main projects, both of which I enjoyed doing. I found creating instructional videos the most interesting as I was taught how to use Canva and was able to quickly pick it up to complete my given tasks.
A big challenge I faced was handling multiple projects. This meant having to learn how to split large tasks into smaller ones, working to a schedule and tackling each project head on. This experience has helped me develop many skills, a major one being time management, which allowed me not to feel overwhelmed, stopped me from procrastinating and enabled me to prioritise my workload. Undertaking this work placement has allowed me to understand the office environment and made me comfortable in asking for help and guidance.
Katie
At the start of the week, I assumed I would just be shadowing employees to learn how a marketing agency operates. However, TSP exceeded my expectations by letting me sit in on client meetings and gain vital skills in how to create article pitches and write social media posts for life science companies.
Throughout the week I attended meetings to gain an understanding of the marketing sector. As a placement student I worked on a variety of tasks, which provided the opportunity to develop and learn new skills that I can apply not only to marketing but to the workplace in general. I particularly found writing social media posts the most interesting because it enabled me to understand the structure and function of posts depending on the context.
The most challenging part of the placement has been writing about scientific products with no prior knowledge of the life science industry. However, during the week, with help from the team, I have expanded my knowledge by reading background information and asking questions to further my understanding.
My main takeaway from my time at TSP would be how interesting it is to work in the field of life science marketing because you get to work with innovative companies who are transforming science and making new discoveries that impact the world we live in. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to learn some essential marketing skills from the knowledgeable team at TSP and the experience has ultimately made me realise that I would like to have a career in marketing.
Gabriella
My initial expectations of working at a communications agency like TSP were that I would be able to broaden my knowledge of marketing, experience a fast-paced office environment and learn new skills. TSP went above and beyond by immersing me within the company to show me different aspects of the job.
During the week I was given various tasks, including writing social media posts and blogs, pitching articles and creating videos, all enabling me to develop my content creation skills. However, one challenge I faced with these tasks was the difficult language of life sciences and how to summarise the technical ideas into engaging posts. But, with the help of the team and by using past examples I was able to overcome this.
A highlight of the week was taking part in a brainstorming session. The supportive nature of the team allowed me to feel confident in sharing my own ideas.
Overall, this week helped me feel more assured in my abilities and has taught me to face challenges positively, not to feel overwhelmed and instead tackle a busy workload in a timely manner and allow myself to ask for help.
We all want to say a huge thank you to the team at TSP who all guided us throughout the week and made it such an enjoyable experience.
TSP prides itself on the chances offered to students looking to gain experience in marketing and welcomes students of all levels to get in touch for any upcoming opportunities.
