‘90% of placement students secure a First in their degree’: This fact lead to the launch of HIVEMINDS, an exciting collaboration between The Manchester Metropolitan University and The Greater Manchester Chamber (GMCC).
Manchester is buzzing!
Last week our CEO Kath Darlington had the privilege of being invited to attend the launch of HIVEMINDS, where EDUCATION MEETS BUSINESS, a partnership between GMCC and the Faculty of Business and Law at Manchester Metropolitan University.
As such the theme of the inaugural HiveMinds meeting was bringing business and marketing students from the Faculty together with the wider business community, and enthusing them about the opportunities of placements for students
Subrahmaniam Krishnam-Harihara summed up the opportunities in Manchester and the North-West with his 40% analogy about the significant economic activity: “Greater Manchester constitutes 40% of the North-West economy, and 40% of its employment, and 40% of its business…Sometimes Manchester is reporting growth at twice the national average.”
And to prove it the panel shared why Manchester is a destination to dream about: consisting of current placement students and former alumnae of Man Met, the panel talked passionately about their individual experiences, sharing advice for future placementees.
This was echoed by two panellists who both proved the personal value of their placements leading to them ‘killing it’ in their future workplaces: Cassandra Johnson eloquently advocated for the eye-opening inspiration she had gained on her journey from Longsight to market dominance at Expedia Group while Hannah Frances Boswell outshone the cohort at Bentley Motors to win ‘Placement of the Year’ and continue her role part-time as she completes her degree, explaining that the annual intake of approximately 130 sounds high until you consider the 10000 applicants on average each year for the precious placements in Crewe.
Current placement students Tom Hewett and Dylan Cutler explained that persistence and tenacity are important in the placement hunt, and that it pays to ‘leverage relationships’. Dylan talked about working with a ‘lot of data’, seconded by Subra who explained to the room that to ‘excel in Excel is to excel in your job.’
The evening was organised to ensure that the students of today have the ‘essential skills of the modern workplace’ to become the talent of tomorrow and this was proven by the expert organisation of this event by recent graduate and placement student Leah Salmon.
Thanks to Vera Baker and Sean Owens for inviting The Scott Partnership to join this event. Great to meet old friend and fellow #exportchampion Lee Ali from Expo Stars Interactive and to meet new friend Ian Mallon from Neon Freight who summed up the envy of us business owners ‘Doesn’t it make you just want to go back and do it all again?’ He is right: the opportunities are there and being grabbed with both hands by this cohort from the BA (Hons) Business & Marketing degree programme at Man Met.
Finally not only was the launch event officially opened by Emma Holt, President of Greater Manchester Chamber, UK and Reader in Professional Education but she also took the opportunity to announce ‘The Manchester Met MBA’ newly launching for 2025 and which sounds amazing.
It was a pleasure to meet new Professor of Innovation Riccardo De Vita who took the pulse in the room and summed up the learnings for placement students: Partnership/ Preparation and Passion.
We are delighted ourselves to have welcomed many dozens of placement students into The Scott Partnership over the years. This HiveMinds initiative reconfirmed what we believe that the future stars of tomorrow are about to join us today.
#B2BPR
#B2Bmarketing
