SEEN is the University of Birmingham’s School of Engineering Employability Network.
The network aims to provide industrial partners with a straightforward means of recruiting talented, enthusiastic, and well-prepared students from the University of Birmingham, for placement opportunities.
Be assured that students will be fully prepared for their industry experience, as they are provided with tailored skills-development workshops, in conjunction with the University’s industrial partners.
SEEN’s Placement Scheme will Allow you to:
- Recruit for internships directly from students across the whole breadth of the programmes offered within the School of Engineering
- Screen and assess the suitability of applicants, by sector, with access to a platform of high-quality student applications
- Reach an extensive pool of applicants at no cost to your company, this may be of particular benefit for SMEs or those with reduced recruitment budgets
- This efficient route for recruitment is not reliant on websites such as Gradcracker or Target Jobs to advertise, so you can select from a large audience without incurring any fees
- Recruit well-prepared, highly-skilled students from an academically rigorous institution with a reputation for high graduate employability
University of Birmingham’s Experience:
SEEN is a revitalisation and expansion of the hugely successful ‘RESPECT’ scheme, which has created opportunities for Civil Engineering students to find placements, develop networks, and successfully find graduate roles for decades.
Many of their graduates associate their success in gaining employment through the scheme, and returned as employers during RESPECT in Feb 2023.
RESPECT 2023 facilitated over 120 interviews with 54 Civil Engineering students. They are able to deal with large-scale employability events and have a dedicated team who will be able to help with any queries at any stage of the process.
Their recruitment activities take place on a beautiful campus in Edgbaston, in the brand-new Engineering Building, with a team on hand to support with any logistics on the day.
Timeline:
October/November:
- Registration of interest to participate on the scheme
- CV Workshop
- Assessment Centre
- Application
- Development Support
- Companies provide company/placement description
- Provision of a short company overview and the areas of engineering that the company is interested in recruiting from
November:
- Invitation to attend a ‘Meet the Companies’ event on campus to meet students interested in applying
- Careers Fair
- Available placements advertised
December/January:
- Students develop applications
- Student applications formed of a standardised set of questions and a 2-page maximum CV
- Applications shared with companies
- All student applications are shared in folders separated by area of engineering the student is interested in undergoing placements in
- Shortlisting
- Companies to submit shortlist(s) of 10 students (with reserve candidates) to interview in a ‘panel’. This panel can be for multiple roles and you can also submit to have multiple panels
- School of Engineering to collate and schedule panels
February:
- Interview event held within School of Engineering
- Interview session
- Decisions made and outcomes shared (ideally) 1 week after interviews
- Offers made
- Students go on placement
- Schedules shared with companies and students
March onwards:
- Onboarding of successful candidates
- Completion of Placements
Next Steps:
If you would like to express interest in participating in the SEEN 2023 Placement Scheme, please fill in the short form that can be found via the link below. Please feel free to share this within your own networks where you feel it would be appropriate.
https://forms.office.com/e/VhwDRnjPSQ
If you have any questions or feedback about SEEN, this can be directed to:
