June 23, 2016, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham
A wealth of talented and confident individuals
University of Nottingham postgraduate student Rebecca did a placement with Paguro, a company offering a collection of contemporary up-cycled fashion and home accessories, ethically produced from recycled and re-purposed materials. We asked Yen from Paguro Ltd to give us an employer’s eye view of the placement and share some of the ways that working with a postgraduate student helped the company.
Can you tell us a little about Paguro?
I’ve always been interested in fashion but I became disillusioned with what I saw on the high street. Copious chain stores offering fast fashion and a throwaway culture to match. Then, by chance, I came across a designer whilst travelling in South East Asia, whose mission was to create ethical bags and accessories using repurposed and recycled materials. What made these products so special to me was the imaginative way in which the materials had been reinvented and the positive impact that their creation was having on the local community. Excited by their creativity, my passion was rekindled and I decided to scour the globe looking for designers and create a platform to tell their stories and support their visions.
In what ways did Rebecca, your placement student, help deliver your business needs?
We needed a German speaker to help with the international expansion of the business. In practical terms this meant translating our current English retail website to German as well as providing German content for our Social Media and e-marketing; carrying out keywords research to optimise SEO for the website and improve the sales conversion rate; and the ability to approach German speaking retailers and follow-up sales leads for German speaking countries.
Rebecca met all of our requirements and more. She was wonderful for the role as she is a native German speaker; so she was not only able to translate the site but she could offer a personal touch, imparting our ethos and messages. We’ve been able to launch products on another German ethical shopping site, giving us a foothold in a previously unexplored market. Rebecca also brought a fresh perspective and energy to our social media activities which has led to an increase in followers and has created more of a buzz in our online presence.
“[Rebecca] has laid the foundations for our future strategies.”
To be honest we were perhaps not expecting the level of independence that Rebecca was able to bring. She very easily grasped the concepts that we were looking to put across and she consistently worked towards those aims. We were also pleased that Rebecca felt confident enough to impart her own ideas on strategies and developments, as it brought a new perspective to our team. She communicated clearly with us throughout her placement which was particularly important when she was working independently. She has made an active contribution to the future success of our business and she will be missed.
What would you say to other organisations thinking of making a placement offer?
I would encourage any organisation to consider placement offers as there is a wealth of talented and confident individuals who are ready to bring something different to your teams. It would be particularly worthwhile for both the organisation and the student to focus on a self-contained project, where the student will have the opportunity to really contribute to something meaningful. You may just unearth the next rising star of your business.
Paguro are currently offering another placement opportunity. See the Postgraduate Placement Portal for further information, or to register for updates about other placement opportunities.
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