Placement Opportunities for Students – Higher Skills Higher Growth

Do you want to gain work experience doing something you love?

We are now offering the opportunity for all our students at Rotherham College to expand their work experience within the fields that they love the most, through Higher Skills Higher Growth.

Higher Skills Higher Growth is an initiative brought together by RNN Group (parent organisation to Rotherham College), Sheffield Hallam University and The Sheffield College to give students the platform to gain work experience in their field, whilst helping small and medium-sized businesses in the Sheffield City Region.

Chad Marson, a Level 3 Games and Animations student, was one of the first students to benefit from the placement programme. Chad led a team of six other College students during their time on placement at a start-up company in Sheffield.

About his time on placement, Chad said: “My 1-2 months on placement were a really neat experience. It was such a unique opportunity to practice work experience, especially with many people struggling to find these opportunities on their own. I found that this placement was available and accessible to us students.”

Together, Chad and his team developed a localised marketing and digital strategy, which included SEO, graphic design, social media marketing and the construction of a new website.

Chad, who has ambitions of working as a Game Designer, underlined the importance of being given opportunities to apply knowledge learned in College, saying: “My favourite part of being on placement was just figuring out how to do stuff… from editing photos and videos to learning how to make GIFs, and remaking a business website. I feel like I have built a foundation for my future career.”

Sean Ibrahim, Project Lead for the Higher Skills Higher Growth project, at RNN Group, discussed the importance of finding the right fit for students, saying:

“We try to get projects that would interest the students, projects that they can go home and feel proud about. We want Higher Skills Higher Growth to be a badge that people would like to wear.”

The Higher Skills Higher Growth programme is available to students from all courses and looks to pair passionate students with growing businesses in industries they love.

If you, like Chad, want to gain invaluable work experience which will help you on the track to your dream career, you can!