Employability

You'll gain insight and exposure to employers and the opportunity to gain professional expperience

At Aston University, we don’t just teach you. We understand the job market, so we will work with you from day one to give you the tools to develop the skills and experiences to match your career ambitions.

Here’s how we’ll help…

  • Connecting you to employers - Aston is connected to business and industry through our relationships with hundreds of organisations of all shapes and sizes. We will provide opportunities for you to engage with employers through presentations, workshops and recruitment fairs.
     
  • Specialist careers advice – our dedicated careers consultants can work with you in a variety of ways via one to one appointments, group sessions and drop-ins so you can develop your career plan.
     
  • Gain work experience – we source and advertise a broad range of opportunities from consultancy projects through to internships. Our team can support you with your application and interview skills.
     
  • Hands-on experience – you will gain a wide range of specialist and transferable skills throughout your course, particularly during you research project all designed to make your transition from study to employment.

Aston Global Advantage

The Aston Global Advantage is our professional development programme and an integrated module that runs throughout our MSc courses within Aston Business School. The programme will equip you with transferable skills and relevant experiences for the workplace, giving you a competitive edge in the job market, or for when starting a business. Flexible and personalised, this programme can be tailored to your career aspirations, development needs, or existing professional experience. Whatever career path you wish to follow, this programme lets you take control of your future.

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Learn business. Do business

As an Aston Business School student, you can tackle real-life business projects, gain valuable professional experience and develop your skills and commercial understanding, thanks to a wide range of practical business initiatives.

You’ll have opportunities to take part in consultancy projects for small businesses, receive support to start your own venture, help young, aspiring entrepreneurs as well as many other exciting and rewarding programmes.

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Professional Practice

The following courses from the School of Informatics and Digital Engineering offer a professional practice route:

The difference between the standard courses and the professional practice course is that it features a professional placement.

Taking the Professional Practice route allows you to extend the duration of your Masters to 22 months and gain valuable working experience to support your career aspirations. The placement commences after completion of your MSc dissertation and can be paid work, study abroad exchanges or unpaid research projects or even a mix of these options. You will return to Aston the following May for an intensive period on campus to draw all your learning together and finalise the assessments.

Although you are responsible for finding your placement, you will have access to the support of our award-winning Careers and Placements Team, who have helped so many of our students to secure placement and work opportunities, including by providing CV and application preparation, and practice interviews. In addition, you will participate in a programme of activities within the School designed to develop your personal and professional skills such as industry seminars and networking activities.

Opportunities for one-to-one coaching and mentoring will also support your learning journey and help you become more work-ready.

Aston is 3rd in the UK for the number of students taking a sandwich year (HESA 2018), showing just how much we encourage students to gain professional experience and how successful we are at enabling them to secure work placements. Take a look at our specific placement information and support.

A report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) in 2020 found that postgraduate students earn on average 18% more than first-degree holders six months after graduation.

Start your own business

If you’re looking to start your own business or develop a new venture idea, you can benefit from our on-campus start-up support programme.

  • BSEEN (Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network) provides an intensive start-up bootcamp to develop your entrepreneurial skills. There’s valuable mentoring and networking opportunities, allowing you to grow your network of contacts and learn from experienced entrepreneurs. A financial grant and free office space are also available to help you build a successful venture.
     
  • Pitchfest is our exciting initiative, which will teach you to deliver a successful business pitch and give you support in refining your venture plan. It’s a fantastic opportunity for personal development too - grow in confidence, develop key business skills and connect with investors and entrepreneurs.

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