Year in Employment Scheme

Monday 26 March 2007
Year in Employment Scheme
The Year in Employment Scheme (YES) is an invaluable and unique experience for Aberystwyth students, where they get the chance to spend a year working for a company between their second and third year. Students from any department can apply for employment in any field they wish in the UK or abroad.

Every year, many students from Aberystwyth take part in the scheme, and gain invaluable work experience in all sorts of different work fields and all over the world. 

One of these students, Jaqueline Pearson, is currently spending her year in employment in Georgia in the USA.

“I'm studying Environmental Science and wanted to work in Environmental Education. An e-mail from the YES office about a place in Georgia, USA, called Rock Eagle 4-H Centre aroused my interest and I decided to apply. The YES office helped to arrange a telephone interview and later to fill out my visa application. The great thing about the Year in Employment Scheme is the University really wants people to take advantage of the opportunity to spend a year in work during their degree, so everyone is very helpful.

“I am now halfway though my placement and I am having an amazing time. I am an environmental educator teaching children, primarily aged 7 to 14, classes ranging from lake and stream ecology to pioneer tools and canoeing. I have learnt how to handle baby alligators and small raptors. I have had high ropes training and can teach about Native Americans. I have gained many new friends and new skills, including leadership skills and confidence speaking in front of others.

“I don't think you can really sum up the benefits of a YES placement, whether abroad or in the UK. It’s more then something that just looks good on your CV. If you chose a placement that you really want it can be the experience of a lifetime, and the University gives you lots of encouragement and support.”

Many Aberystwyth students have already secured their place for a job for the next academic year. Rachel McMahon, a second year Genetics student from Stafford in the Midlands, has had a work placement with GlaxoSmithKline.

“I chose to do a Year in Employment because it will look good on the CV, and also there’s a chance that the company will offer a permanent job after I finish my degree.  The skills earned from the job will hopefully be very useful in the third year for my dissertation.  The careers service was very helpful in drafting and improving model answers for the applications questions when applying for the job.

“I will be based in Greenford in West London and I’m really looking forward to it but the thought of arranging accommodation in London and actually moving down there is very scary!  The title of my job is Clinical Research Scientist and I’ll be designing and applying drug test protocals and then follow up with a report.”

Jay Thakrar is a second year student and studies Economics at Aberystwyth.  He has had a job with The Government Economic Service, based in central London at the Treasury.

“I chose to do a year in employment mainly due to the increased pressure of limited graduate opportunities after leaving University and doing a year in employment will improve my attractiveness to recruiters as a results of my experience.  There is also the factor of getting paid, which will really help me finance my final year and the travelling I want to do after graduating.

“I’m really looking forward to doing the job because I’ll get to learn a lot about what I study and get to apply the theory I learn in class to real life situations.  As I’ll be working in the department for communications and local government my job entails mainly analysis work of housing, urban regeneration, planning and local government.”

Anyone interested in doing a YES placement should contact Joanna Bullock in the YES office on jeb@aber.ac.uk or yes-office@aber.ac.uk