Industry placements pay off for students

Students on the Management Science’s MSc Business Analysis and Consulting go through a selection process for a coveted January placement each year. Here, student Elaine Indoo talks about the benefits of this industry engagement.

I was initially attracted to the MSc in Business Analysis and Consulting programme due to its focus on studying applied analytical methods to influence strategy and evaluate performance. Learning is very much focused on providing a variety of examples on organisational needs while at the same time developing team working abilities.

The apprenticeship scheme run in January was another significant element of my attraction to the programme. The placement allows the opportunity to spend three weeks fully embedded in an analytical team and put the skills learned in the first semester into practice.

Apprenticeships are offered all over the UK via a competition process. I was able to make three selections from the list of projects on offer. Strathclyde’s links with industry formed an extensive range of organisations and projects to choose from. The projects themselves varied in the range of quantitative to qualitative opportunities to practice theories covered on the course.

Some of the projects require an interview, but it is nothing to stress over as they are informal in nature. I was lucky enough to be interviewed and placed with Diageo for a data validation project within the International Supply Chain Centre at their offices in Glasgow.

The project itself gave me the opportunity to analyse master data on Diageo’s most iconic brands including Johnny Walker and Guinness. Combing multiple reference databases, I analysed large amounts of global data pinpointing errors effecting performance. The team were very welcoming and also provided the opportunity to get a wider view of the company from a visit to a bottling plant to see the operational process in action to a rare visit to their cooperage campus to see how robots are utilized within whisky cask assembly to maximise productivity.

The apprenticeship scheme has impacted my development through the rest of the programme as it has increased my conscious effort to become an active learner. As the project was only three weeks I had to prioritise, plan and record my learning process to make the most of the opportunity.

As a result of theplacement, I’ve gained an increased awareness on how to identify learning opportunities and take an active role in my learning progress to resolve any barriers. And I’ve got the Department of Management Science to thank for that!

About Elaine Indoo

Elaine Indoo is a student on the MSc Business Analysis & Consulting programme.