Meet Georgia Darbyshire

The Salford Experience

The BSc Business and Management (now called BSc Business Management with Professional Placement Year) course covers a wide range of modules that allows students to study business from different angles within different areas to get an overall view of business. It is very fast paced and I have learnt a huge amount from studying this course. 

My course has taught me different areas of business and my placement has allowed me to see the things I have learnt at university to come to life in a real life business setting and has allowed me to develop my knowledge in these areas.

My favourite part of university is meeting new friends on my course and studying a subject that I am highly interested in and learning about it to a high level.

The Placement Experience During Covid-19

I work at N Brown Group in merchandising operations. This role has allowed me to move around different areas of the business to see how they operate and fit together. I have been in the product operations department and the partnerships operations department and in both I have learnt so much and how they contribute to the smooth running of the business as a whole.

The highlight of my placement has been learning about different parts of the business and seeing how they all fit together to form one big business. Also, meeting new people has been a huge part of my placement and it has made it enjoyable to work for N Brown.

As my placement has been during the COVID – 19 pandemic, I have learnt how businesses adapt and change their ways of working to fit in with the current climate.

I have also learnt how much a global situation can affect a business and the way it runs. N Brown has offices based in Piccadilly gardens, however it has adapted so that all employees can work remotely as with the government guidelines, and had to do this in a short space of time.

My placement has supported me hugely through Covid – 19. We have team calls daily which are used for the team to catch up and discuss any issues.

N Brown have also introduced wellness to be a huge part of their working schedule. We have wellness breaks during the day and a wellness hour each Friday which is designed for employees to use the time doing something they enjoy and away from work. This is very useful as we have been working from home it is easy to do long hours and not have breaks but N Brown ensures we are still looking after ourselves. 

University has supported me by keeping in touch through regular emails. I also have a placement supervisor who I speak to from university who ensures I am up to date with university and I can ask any questions which has been very useful as I have been on my placement year and away from university.

Advice for Future Students

I would definitely recommend everyone to do a placement year, it has opened me up to job roles that I would not have considered if I didn’t do my placement year and it has taught me skills that I may not have learnt otherwise which have set me up for future job roles.

I would recommend Salford Business School to anyone wanting to study business as the university offers a wide range of courses that cover business and it allows students to reach their full potential in their course. The support from tutors at the university is also very helpful when studying.

Next Steps

 I am looking forward to getting back to studying and putting skills I have learnt on my placement year into theory at university. After university, I hope to get a job in Manchester in merchandising as this is what I have done in my placement year and have enjoyed it.