How John Clay from London Metropolitan University leverages Riipen for student work placements.

​​At Riipen, we’re proud to support educators who are driving innovation and shaping the future of their students' careers. We recently had the pleasure of speaking with John Clay, the Employer Engagement Support Assistant at London Metropolitan University, about how Riipen’s platform has helped connect students with valuable work placements. With Riipen, educators like John can match students with employers who need their specific skills, ensuring that both students and companies benefit from mutually rewarding experiences.

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Read on to discover how Riipen helped John achieve his goals of providing students with real-world, credit-earning opportunities and building lasting relationships with employers.

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How has Riipen helped your institution achieve its goals?

“I work for London Metropolitan University, helping students find work placements as part of their modules. The work placements earn the students credits towards their overall mark. Since I started, I have made many contacts through Riipen, which has aided me in finding the right placement opportunities for the right students. A digital media student, for example, wouldn’t benefit from a work placement stacking shelves. By utilising Riipen, I’ve matched the placements with the students who would benefit most from them.”

What was your experience like using the Riipen platform?

“I’ve found Riipen very simple and easy to use, and its excellent communication platform means I have had quick and direct contact with potential employers for our students, and also receive updates and feedback on their progress. [Our experience] Swerv is one particular example of great communication and updating on how the project was moving along.

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“Swerv is a company that contacted us to help with a project their working on. The goal was to improve the user functionality of their new dating app, designed to match people in person in their local spaces, rather than with an online 'face', as Swerv's more focused on matching people with places and things in common in their local area. Our team of students helped Swerv develop their app to do exactly this.”

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What were the outcomes of your experience with Riipen?

“Having completed a full semester using Riipen to find placements, I am looking forward to building our portfolio of employers even further with more and more companies looking for our students in the same way we are looking for these companies. Riipen has created a fantastic link between the employers and students, and I believe we can get bigger and better as time goes on.”

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What kind of experiences did you publish on the Riipen platform?

“We published primarily computer science, digital media, and database software experiences, and were inundated with companies looking to take students on. The digital world, in particular, uses this kind of platform to recruit, so it was ideal for us.”

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How did this project help London Metropolitan University? 

“This project was to find work placements for students at our university. Riipen provided the platform for us to advertise our students' skills and match them with companies that require some extra hands-on deck. We managed to get a large number of students in touch with companies through Riipen’s communications and had many take up placements working with businesses.”

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What projects or experiences were success drivers for your business? 

“The university had great success finding placements for digital media and computer science students. Swerv Dating became a very successful project for a number of our cohort, and the Interfaith Assembly Project in New York is an ongoing team of students who are rebuilding and streamlining the database for the charity, which is working incredibly well. I personally found the ease with which I could set up online meetings (bearing in mind there is a time difference!) incredibly helpful; this aided me in advertising the placements directly to the right students to connect them with the right employers.”

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How do you think other organizations can benefit from the Riipen experience?

“Riipen is a fantastic platform to find the students who are able to do the job you need, whilst also gaining valuable experience towards their learning and course credits. It’s a win/win situation. 

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We found that many students were gaining the experience and credits to be able to take the next steps in their academic and professional careers, whilst so many companies were able to pass on some vital work to focus more on other parts of the business. It’s a mutual benefit.”

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What advice would you give to other educators considering Riipen?

“Be clear and concise with your advert. Tell potential employers what type of course your students are on, and make sure that the kind of work they would benefit from is obvious and the level of students is clear. Some employers need more than an entry-level student, yet some are more than happy with one. Make sure you advertise how many hours are required from the student - if they are only required to complete 70 hours of work experience, but the project will take 140, then an employer will be left stuck halfway through. Just be clear and concise.”

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