My NTU finance work placement.

Hi my name is Mackenzie Russell and I participated in a work experience placement as a Finance Assistant from 27^th June – 1^st July. I am a year 10 student. And I decided to take a work experience placement because I wanted to know what it was like to work in a professional environment and I thought that the business environment would be one of the most professional.  I also enjoy and have a keen interest in business so I thought that this placement best suited me. Because of this I worked in the Finance Department of the university, where I learnt all about finance and the different aspects of it. This will be a daily review about my work experience throughout the week.

Monday

At the computer on my first day.

On Monday, I met up with Claire Davies, my supervisor for the week. We introduced ourselves so that we got to know about each other. We talked about our interests and I asked her questions about the university, whilst she showed me around the campus. Firstly, we walked to Information Systems (IS), where I went to get my own login account. I felt like an actual worker. Afterwards we went down to the Newton-Arkwright buildings, where I got my own card that would help me get into secured places that only staff could get into. Once we had finished that, Claire introduced me to the Finance Department. Everyone welcomed me. I felt nervous at first but everyone was extremely kind. Now came my first job - Procurement. I met Susan in the Procurement area of the department where she explained to me what Procurement was and what she does at the university, she talked to me about the tender process and how to fill out a tender form. I then had lunch afterwards. After lunch I went back to Susan and she introduced me to e5, a program software that enabled you to complete and carry out forms, this was used for things such as tendering, invoicing and more. I enjoyed my first day as an assistant and I learned many new advanced things that I would never learn at school. I am glad I am on this placement as I can apply it into my knowledge at school.

Tuesday

I was looking forward to coming in now as I really enjoyed myself on Monday. I was intrigued to find out more about my first session - Payroll. I headed over to payroll where Denise told me what payroll was and how to manage staff salaries. We worked out the factors affecting salary and calculated the net per month. This was very interesting. Afterwards I went over to Business Law and Social Sciences (BLSS) with Kam to learn about BLSS Finance. After learning about this area I had lunch. After lunch I learnt about Financial Services with Vicky Sellars and some of her team, Nisha and Paddy. Nisha told me about expenses and that her job is to confirm individual’s payments on behalf of the University like accounting costs for lecturers’ research and that they have to make an invoice for costs. Also she told me that she sets the budget for the year ahead and if it is over budget she shows them where it went wrong on an advised forecast. I then met Paddy who showed me an invoicing spreadsheet that he puts on e5 which is automatically produced into and invoice pdf document. He also showed me financial performance reports which show me previous expenditure. Finally he showed me a commitment report which is where the University owes money and says that they haven’t invoiced yet and that they need to invoice before the end of the year. I had a go at locating the invoices and financial reports and checking them and updating them.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning I attended meetings with my supervisor Claire to get a feel of what business meetings were like. It was as I expected, very professional. The first meeting was about NTU’s Supplier Forum and Recognition Awards 2017. We met up with Hanh, a NTU Masters student and the Business School’s event planners.

The subsequent meeting was discussing a policy for Modern Slavery in relation to NTU’s supply chains where we met with Mark Lucas, Purchasing Manager and Paul Andrew, Head of Procurement. We had meetings up until lunch then after lunch, I met up with Jenny Henry of Corporate Accounts (Professional Services) where she spoke about her job. She told me that she sets budget allocations to different departments in the University. The University’s financial period is from August to July so she was working towards the end of the year and finalising checks. She said that she monitors the spending of the departments and ensures that there is no overspending by the budget holders (departments). She manages this through systems such as Cognos Powerplay and e5 which check that nothing is miscoded. An e5 is used to input the budget into the system at the start of the year.

Then I met the Director of Finance, James Lacey who told me about his job and that he is on the University’s Executive Team and the Board of Directors. The Head of Procurement, Payroll, Head of Management Accounting (Invoices) and the Head of Accountants amongst others all report to him. He said that whilst the Finance functions are being managed by his team he has to look ahead to the Financial Strategy and plan. He advised me to keep working hard and go to University so that one day I could be in his position. This really motivated me and now I am going to study hard.

Thursday

 Boots library roof garden. 

On Thursday I met Faysal who showed me around the campus and talked to me about student life. He is a placement student at NTU so is classed as a member of University staff. He is a student studying Finance on a sandwich degree where he studies for one year, then has a work placement for a year before returning to complete his final year degree. He showed me around places I had never been before when visiting with school and this was very interesting. Then during lunchtime, Claire had organised for me to go and play basketball with the staff Basketball Team. Cen, a basketball player introduced me to everyone and I met Richard, Victor and many others. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really nice that Claire had arranged this as she knew that I played basketball by looking at my CV. Afterwards Cen told me that she worked in the same building as me in the marketing department so I arranged to meet her on Friday to give me an insight into marketing. She also invited me to basketball training with her and the team on Friday. After lunch I went back to Paddy again and did some scanning of invoices for uploading onto the systems databases.

Friday

 The finance department. 

Friday was a sad day as it was my last day and I didn’t want to leave. I thoroughly enjoyed the placement so much. However before my first task, Joseph, from security came up to me and complimented me on my basketball as he was watching me on Thursday. Again, it was really nice that he took his time to come and speak to me. The staff here at NTU are the most friendliest staff ever! On Friday morning, I learnt about student planning with Lisa, where she told me about Banner - a student centre for courses and databases. She uses Cognos for reports on students. She said that her job was to do reports and spreadsheets about students and check statistics for the University. Then later on I met Cen downstairs where she told me about marketing and that she publishes the University prospectus and how they produce it. She also introduced me to her placement student Joe who told me that he was also in his working year. He said that he originally did finance but decided to do marketing instead as it allowed him to express his creativity. Afterwards me and Cen went down to the basketball courts at the Students Union and played basketball. I then came back and gave everyone some chocolates as a way of thanking them for having me and gave them my secret card!

I have really enjoyed this placement and I definitely recommend this to friends.

Work experience in the SCCO department

The SCCO Building

Hi all, my name is Georgia, I am in year 12 and through my sixth form I have been doing work experience at Nottingham Trent University; week commencing 20th June 2016 to the 24th  June 2016.  You might think this sounds dull, maybe you’ve already got a part time job and you feel you’re already experienced, but let me tell you, this week has opened so many new doors for me, it’s provided me REAL ‘experience’. Throughout the course of the week I have taken part in a variety of different activities that have given me opportunities to learn new skills. I will talk you through what I have been up to.

Monday

Me and some of the SCCO staff  

Monday was my first day of work experience here at Nottingham Trent University and of course, I was nervous and I didn’t really have a clue what it was going to be like but I arrived with an open mind and a passion to learn. I went along with one of the SCCO staff called Lucy to a year 9 visit.  This involved telling the pupils more about university and what university experience would have in store for them. Throughout the course of the day there were various activities taking place, two of which were taster sessions which gave pupils an insight to the kind of subjects available at university. We then went for a tour around the City site to show the pupils the different areas of the university. This went really well and all the pupils were very interested. One room in particular room caught the pupils’ interest, the law room.  It is laid out like a real court room. Some pupils are hoping to do law in higher education so it benefited them to see this. On this day I learnt a lot that I didn’t know about university subjects and I really enjoyed looking around the university and getting a feel of what university life is like. It was also a chance to get my bearings on where I would be working all week.

Tuesday

 Court Room in the law building

On my second day I was feeling a lot more optimistic. I was based at Clifton campus which I didn’t get a feel for as much as I did the city site; it felt enclosed and had less of a vibe. I was taking part in a year 5 visit which I thoroughly enjoyed. The children were engaged and wanted to be there and the presenter, Tash, made it really interesting and did everything appropriately for that age group to understand and enjoy. We made puppets with the children, which they really enjoyed and got involved in. I even enjoyed making one myself! I developed my skills in child care and I felt I have learnt more about how to act with someone that age and adapt my language and communication around different age groups. The point of the day was to give the year 5’s an insight into what moving up to comprehensive school would be like; I felt this aim was achieved.

Wednesday

Arkwright Building - City site 

Wednesday was a good day! I attended, again at Clifton campus, ‘Raise the Grade French’ this was with year 10 pupils so they were well behaved and made the day easy for us helpers. I feel this massively achieved its aim and benefited the students brilliantly. I don’t do French myself so I struggled to help them out but watching them learn and develop their skills was really useful for me to see how one day can really boost your learning skills. There was a revision session where the students were given advice on how to revise so although I’m not doing French, I developed skills on revision and learnt new techniques.

Me in the Newton Building

Thursday

Thursday was hectic! It was a year 12 visit consisting of 80 students so as you can imagine the room was jam packed!! I learnt that although year 12 are closest to going to university compared to year 5’s, 9 and 10, they were the least engaged which shocked me quite a bit. I think the aims of the session were met but it was difficult for the presenter to get his point across over all the talking and noise that was going on. This was my least favourite day so far.

Friday

My final day of work experience! I’m going to miss it! I wrote up my blog and spoke to various members of staff about the jobs they do. It was really interesting to learn about all the different jobs the one department do and how they work as a team. I was impressed.

Our work experience at NTU

Outside the office on the first day

Hi our names are Haidar and Tinashe and we are here doing our year 10 week of work experience at Trent University in the department Of Schools, Colleges and Community Outreach. In this department they specialise in making and maintaining relationships with the outside.

We have been based in the progression team who work on the welcome week schemes, running work experience for students, the children’s university, social media and lastly organising specific events for the whole of the university. In this team there are 6 members, our supervisor Kirsty Kelly-Lewin, Laura H, Paul, Zoe, Nasser and Laura B.

Progression team doing a focus activity

Monday: On the first day we were introduced to all of the staff and were briefly told what their jobs consisted of – the staff were very welcoming and friendly. We then attended the progress team meeting where we listened in to the conversations and heard about the different concepts that they had newly introduced into their meetings. Afterwards we went with Julian to Bilborough College and observed a class on ‘surviving uni’. Soon after, we were shown around the campus with a student ambassador.

Tuesday: we were sent into the finance and purchasing department where we were shown around each desk and told what their jobs consisted of. Afterwards we went to NUAST with Danielle for a class on ‘interview skills’. Where we got to see an accounting seminar till the end of the day.

Looking at books in the library 

 Wednesday: we started off with a welcome week task and then went into the finance department to meet the payroll team. After half an hour with the payroll team we both filled out the skills sheets. We sat down with Katie Todd who gave us an overview on the ambassador scheme where students

get paid to do jobs for the university in their own time. Then we went to the library to take photos for the blog.

Thursday: we carried on with the welcoming task and reported back our findings to our supervisor. We were then taught how to use Microsoft excel by Tash Neale and then given a data entry task. Later on, we went with Amber Page to NCN for a talk on ‘Higher Education and researching your options’ with year 12s.

In the board room working on budgeting

 Friday: We sat with Paul and had a video overview and then edited some videos he had taken before. Soon after, we sat with Jo Wheatcroft and worked on a budget task which in our opinion was great. We had lots of fun doing another budget task later with Lucy Judd and presented it in the meeting room to her. And lastly we had an interesting talk with Nasser Latif about work life and other important things to remember whilst being there.

All in all, we enjoyed our work experience a lot and would recommend it to other students looking for placements.

Author: Chitsatso Tinashe & Mahmood, Haidar 

Editor(s): Declan Manning

Creative content developer

An exciting work graduate opportunity is available in the Schools, Colleges and Community Outreach team from September 2016 for a highly creative and  proactive individual.
Are you the person we are looking for?

If you would like more information on applying please visit: https://vacancies.ntu.ac.uk/displayjob.aspx?jobid=2945

A student’s perspective #Grads4nottm

Part 2 The company

   Log of how the week passed


Day 1

Information pack given

Information pack given

Following some careful navigation to the Boots site, on the outskirts of Nottingham. I was welcomed into a large room with a lot of other students. After a short wait, we were introduced to a manager working at Boots and a recent graduate working in Nottingham. They both gave us a small speech on how they managed to get into their jobs and about the benefits of working in Nottingham.


After these came a few ice-breaker  activities and a small welcome pack before we were introduced to our companies. It was an exciting moment, as we didn't know which company had issued which challenges. [I’m assuming this was probably to stop bias at the application stage as there was a mix between small and large companies and everyone would want to work for a big one.]  The company I was working for was a medium sized logistics company called Prolog, and I wasn’t the only one. After talking to our team leaders, Tim and Matt (Prolog), I found out I was working with a group of people doing other challenges.

 The group was consisted of:

Megan – Project Manager
Ryan, Michael and Sam – responsible for the SWOT analysis
Jason and Kwadwo working on web design
Me – responsible for benchmarking


After our initial face to face and a brief overview of the company, my team and I left after swapping numbers and arranging how to get to Prolog the next day.


 Day 2- 4


Waking up early, at 6 am I prepared myself for a long day. My new team had decided the day before that we would go together to Prolog in Megan’s car early the next morning. [ All participants’ commutes were different, depending on the company they worked with.] Prolog was just outside the city centre so we had a little further to travel and had to plan for this in advance. Arriving at 8 am, we proceeded to have our photos taken for our ID cards. Before filling out disclaimer forms, so we didn’t disclose any information about the company to their competitors.

After being given our photo ID’s to allow us to swipe in each morning, we were led on a tour of the facilities. As it was a logistics company, it was large, covering over 6 different sites and holding products from a variety of different partner companies. We were shown the range of methods used to process products and finally, taken to where we would be working for the next 3 days. Our team had an office to work in, fully set up with pens, paper, a flip-chart and computers. After compiling all our notes on the company we had gathered so far, we started work. As I was working on a bench marking analysis, my work was closely linked to the SWOT analysis. This meant I worked a lot throughout the days with Ryan, Sam and Michael.

The challenge passed very quickly as our whole group were very focused and enjoyed the work. We soon made light work of our challenges, finding lots of different ways to improve the company.

Final part coming soon...

The Presentation

A student’s perspective #Grads4nottm

Part one - The application 

Me and the team

I’m Declan Manning, a third year student on the Business Management and Marketing course at Nottingham Trent University. I recently secured a place on the Graduates for Nottingham scheme or #Grads4notts for short. Graduates for Nottingham is a scheme where students, graduates and businesses such as Experian, Ikano bank and other small and medium businesses such as Appinstitute work together with Boots and the University of Nottingham Trent to resolve challenges facing industry.



Applying for a place on #Grads4nottm

As a third year student  getting increasingly close to graduating I understand the difference varied experience makes to a CV. This was my reason for applying for #Grads4nottm as it gives both a weeks worth of work experience and is a great opportunity for networking. To apply for this scheme, I submitted 250 word document outlining my skills and reasons why I was a suitable candidate for the week long programme. There was over 30 different challenges put forward by 25 different companies spanning from competitor analysis, design work, business & operation development, customer engagement and finally advertising and PR work.

Official #Grads4nottm logo

I chose competitor analysis as I found it best suited to strengths and fit in with the management aspect of my business degree. Before #Grad4nottm started, I was assigned a business challenge that involved completing a benchmarking analysis of the company. For anyone that’s unfamiliar with the term benchmarking analysis, this is an evaluation of the company and its competitors using the same criteria.



Bring on the challenge!

The challenge took place over the course of a week. Our first day was an induction to the scheme at Boots, and meeting the company we would be working with during the week. The following three days involved working on a specific project for the company. Our final day had been allocated to presenting our findings back to NTU and the relevant company. Once we had completed the scheme we had the opportunity to attend a networking session with all of the companies present in #Grads4nottm. This meant that I still had the opportunity to chat with all the companies.

To read part two click here!

How I found my 'Passion for Fashion' on work experience!

I have always had a lust for fashion, I was one of the lucky people who always knew what I would study once I got to university. I often read magazines and watched fashion shows on the internet. However, I didn't know much about what fashion design students actually did and learnt at university. Nottingham Trent University organise placements throughout the year for students who want to know more about university studies. It is such a renowned university so I wasted no time getting myself on one of their placements.

My work experience at Nottingham Trent University

My name is Zahra Mahmood and I am 15 years old. I am a British Pakistani and attend Bluecoat Academy. I am in year 10 going into year 11.  The GCSE’s I am studying are English Language, English Literature, Double Science (Core and Additional), Maths, Religious Studies, Geography, German and Information Technology. I am a very active person, I am always playing sports or taking part in activities at school. I play for a cricket team called Notts and Arnold Cricket Club and once played for the Under 13’s Nottinghamshire County Girls Cricket Team! 

NTU Arkwright Building

I was quite nervous on the first day of work experience at Nottingham Trent University.This was a new experience for me, I had never had a job before this. I was to work in the Schools, Colleges and Community Outreach department. My supervisors were Laura Hope and Siba Munsanje,  they gave me a timetable for the 3 days and vaguely described what I was going to do. Most of my time was spent with Siba, she showed me around the university and helped me complete my tasks. 

My first job was to attended a Pathways to Law workshop. It showcased the different types of jobs students could expect to do with a degree in law. It was quite interesting and new to me.  I learnt that particular areas in law are in decline, which was surprising as I assumed more students would be interested in those particular areas. After the workshop, I took my lunch break and met up with my friends. They were on work experience too so it was nice to compare notes. 

Just after lunch, Siba took me on a campus tour around the university, I had the opportunity to see what it offered to students. Siba then explained what her job was, she mentioned the department was looking for someone to replace her for next year because she was going back to studying at university for her final year. She showed me how to manage the different social media platforms used by the department. LinkedIn and Pinterest, in particular, were new to me. Perhaps I'll use them more often when I attend university in the future.

Year 9 campus visit

I wasn't nervous on the second day of work experience because I knew who I was working with and what I was doing. Siba taught me about SWOT analysis, which is analysing a business by knowing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is used a lot when studying business at university, which is interesting to me because I may decide to take business when I get to university. We used SWOT to analyse the department's Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages in order to see how we could improve them. 

Later in the day, I helped out with a year 9 campus visit. I was in charge of the department's Instagram and Twitter pages.  My responsibilities included tweeting the school that was visiting and taking photos of the activities they were doing. I escorted them on the campus tour, afterwards each group did a presentation about their SAM’s (Student Ambassador Mentors). The year 9’s were interesting to help because I was older than them and they listened to me. At the end of the visit, I  went back to the office and edited a blog about budgeting. I did not know much about budgeting so I did some research on it. As editor, I made it easier to read by structuring it better, added a few pictures and made it more engaging.

On day three of my work experience, I learnt about an online learning space called NOW for current NTU students. Almost everything at university is online and if you miss a lecture from your module, you can access it from that website. Lecturers tend to put resources on there. This is completely different to how work is at school, everything is on paper and the only time you work on a computer is during IT or Computing lessons. 

I helped out on a year 12 campus visit. My responsibilities were to take pictures of the students and post them on Twitter and Instagram, to respond to online comments from the students and monitor the entries to our online competition. The year 12’s did different workshops compared to the year 9’s, they learnt how to write CV’s and did mock interviews. I noticed the year 12’s were more serious about Higher Education compared to the year 9’s, they worked independently during the activities. 

I then went back to the office to start working on this post!  I felt like this work experience was a good experience for me and was something that I might think about doing in the future as my job. It taught me useful things that could be of use while I'm still at school. I'm more confident with meeting new people and I got a chance to put my knowledge of social media into practise. Naturally, my generation grew up with social media around us so it was great to use this for my job.  I plan to complete my A-levels and get a job in my free time to gain experience of being in work environment. My goal is to go to university and see where it takes me from there! 

Please note: The work experience was from 24/06/2014 to 26/06/2014.

Author: Zahra Mahmood 
Editor: Siba Munsanje

What Can I do with Art and Design?

"The open door policy of the teaching staff is great. If I’ve ever had a question about a lecture, or can’t find some of the recommended reading, tutors have always been very quick to respond to my emails.

Similarly, for feedback on assignments it was really easy to make an appointment and have a chat which I’ve found really useful.”

Rhianon Brooks, BA (Hons) Criminology 

Engaging with Economics: A student's perspective

Hannah Dudley from Toothill School came to NTU for her work experience in October 2012 as an Economics research assistant. Here's how she found it;

Why economics?  The dictionary said it was the study of the science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, or the material welfare of humankind. Sounds a bit dry right. I was in year 11 and thinking about A level options with only a hazy idea of what I might like to study at university. I knew I had an initial interest in economics (I was studying it at GCSE) but was unaware of the bearing it had on every aspect of our lives.