Information and transcript for the video clip Employability at SMSAS

In this video students share their experiences of industrial placements and other employability opportunities available at the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England.

The YouTube link for the video is https://youtu.be/j6UuM4ZoduQ 

Rasheed Abimbola
Stage 3 Financial Mathematics Student

I did a Year in Industry at Jacobs Douwe Egberts. It's one of the largest pure ground coffee companies, just after Nestlé. They own the brands you know such as Kenco. I was in the Finance Department for the Banbury plant which is the only plant they have in the UK. Because I have been able to do an industrial placement, the industrial placement also helped me to secure an internship straight after so I’ve already got like a year and a half’s experience.

Professor Peter Hydon
Head of School

It gives you the skills that employers are really looking for nowadays: being able to think rigorously, logically and to have some fun doing it. We are here because basically we like maths and we have liked maths ever since we were little mathematicians. 
Eleanor Webb
Stage 2 Mathematics and Statistics Student

Definitely, if you are thinking about a Year in Industry there is really good support here. We have a Facebook group chat and emails from them all the time so that you can never really forget about all the things that you have to do and you’re really prepared well in Year 1. We had lots of workshops every week on building our CV and lots of things you can go to to learn about the places you might want to apply to next year.

Dr Clare Dunning
Head of Mathematics

Former mathematicians have gone into work for example at Boeing, they’re going into some of the research labs at various companies, they’re working at IBM, they’re working in Xerox, might also be working in finance or accounting. One of the students who has just returned spent a year working at Kia, the car company. 

Peter McQuire
Academic Director for Placements and Lecturer in Actuarial Science

We have two dedicated members of staff; so everything they do is to do with the Year in Industry. By going on these placements they seem to almost walk into a job, so a large proportion of the students I know quite well have been very successful in getting their dream job.