On Monday, the 6^th of March, LUMS Careers hosted their annual Placement Student of the Year Awards. Final-year students are given the opportunity to share with a large audience of their peers, industry representatives, academics and support staff from around the university an insight into their third-year industry placement experience.

During this year’s event, six student finalists spoke about embarking on their placement years and their journeys. Topics they discussed included a deeper insight into their roles, interesting projects they were involved with or led on, how they developed during the placement, challenges they had to overcome, and how they went the extra mile during their placements.

Charlotte Wray, BSc Hons Economics and Finance student who completed her placement with GSK as a Transfer Pricing Analyst, rose as Placement Student of the Year 2023. On her placement experience, Charlotte said, “The Placement Student of the Year event was a fantastic opportunity to share what I had done on placement and hear the stories of the other finalists who had such varied and interesting experiences. I had a great time at GSK, particularly leading the placement student organisation, IP Unite, and supporting Project SEARCH and am very proud of the work we did last year. Although it can be stressful securing a placement, the process allows for so many more experiences, both personally and professionally – I would really recommend any undergraduate to consider it!”

The other finalists were Zach Harrison at Sainsbury's, Tom Pipes at Unilever, Jaime Rueda Amores at PRGX, Nathan Shoesmith at Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, and Jen Strong at Adobe.

The event judges included alumnus Caleb Boateng Bekyir (Account Executive at Gartner), alumnus Jennifer Milliams (Project Manager at Faithful+Gould and LUMS Placement Student of the Year 2020), Rory Daly (Head of Careers in LUMS), Dr. Sayjda Talib (Senior Teaching Fellow in the Accounting & Finance Department), and Nuala Lewis (Employer Engagement Manager with Lancaster University Careers Service).

Pictured left to right: Jennifer Milliams, Nuala Lewis, Caleb Boateng Bekyir, Charlotte Wray, Rory Daly, Dr. Sayjda Talib

Juliet Huntington, LUMS Placements and Internships Manager said, “Every year, we celebrate the successes of all our LUMS placement students, and LUMS Placement Student of the Year allows us to do this publicly. It is always a difficult task to identify the shortlist of 6 4th-year finalists who present, and this year was no exception. Each finalist demonstrated their impact on their placement and their legacy at the company. They were impressive in both their presentation skills and also the stories that they told of resilience, innovation, energy and dynamism with some surprises thrown in for good measure! We are proud of all the placement students and these 6 are super-talented ambassadors for LUMS undergraduate students as a whole.”