Trend Bibles View on Work Experience:

Over the past three years, we’ve had 16 work placement students join our core team at Trend Bible and we’re fi rm believers in the insights, inspiration and sheer hard work students bring to our team! Naturally, we try and support our local universities, colleges and schools through a number of initiatives from speaking at New Leaders conferences for schoolgirls, through to setting live design projects for universities and colleges.

Our rigorous interviewing techniques ensure we sift through the 40-50 CVs we receive per week to get the cream of the crop to come and work with us to learn about trend forecasting and how to develop high quality trend analysis skills.

Work experience is highly valued at Cleveland College of Art & Design, as it enhances the learning experience for students. Work experience builds confi dence, increases knowledge and skills, and off ers an invaluable insight into the world of work and the increased knowledge of the opportunities and career paths available.

Work experience also benefi ts employers by off ering them a chance to take on fresh, intelligent and enthusiastic students to work on specifi c projects and can off er applied and current knowledge from their studies.

“We’re extremely proud of the students we’ve had work with us over the past few years, some of them have become permanent members of staff , others freelance for us, and those in full time employment elsewhere constantly keep in touch with us,” explains Joanna Feeley, Trend Bible Director. “I do have very high expectations of degree level students and they work hard while they are with us, it’s a case of being able to think on your feet, problem solve and bring a positive can-do attitude. It’s very much the case that the students who work well here and really thrive put themselves on our radar for recruitment further down the line once they become graduates. I’m not just looking for qualifi cations on paper- it’s about being an exceptional, stand-out candidate, and I must say we’ve seen quite a few of these!

Our students all know that they have a valuable role in our team and are free to make suggestions, improve and implement new systems and processes and generally have a voice.

In your view what do students gain from work experience at Trend Bible?

Students gain a really valuable insight into the world of trend forecasting, but also we talk to them about peripheral skills like clear verbal and visual communication, what’s required on their CV, how they can make themselves stand out and express their unique qualities. Quite often students will develop a real specialism while they are with us, that they would never have seen develop whilst in education, and it helps them identify a skill or expertise they can add to their CV. It also helps them exercise their professionalism and see what’s expected of an employee in the creative industry. It helps them build their contacts, and we work hard at keeping in touch with our previous placement students so that we build a network of contacts whereby we can all be useful to each other.

Tell us about Trend Bible?

Trend Bible is a trend forecasting agency with a particular focus on home and interiors. We predict lifestyle and design trends for blue chip retailers and brands who approach us to look at what trends will impact their business in up to 5 years’ time. We are the only trend forecasting agency in the North and compete with other trend houses in London, New York and Paris. We have two strands to the business; publishing our bi-annual trend books, and delivering bespoke consultancy. We sell our trend books in over 25 countries.

What are the benefits of taking on a student for work experience from a business point of view?

We have a very successful placement scheme involving design and marketing students from various North East colleges and Universities, and we consider ourselves enthusiastic supporters of the fantastic courses at CCAD.

As a seasonal business, we tend to have times when we really need additional creative support, so we bring in students to help us in the lead up to our publishing deadlines. Our student placement interviewing process is rigorous, so we know from the offset what skills the student is equipped with and what will need to be taught and developed through the placement. This does mean that we then know exactly how that students skills can be put to best use, and as a small business, they tend to get to see many different aspects from creative idea generation at our Trend Panel events, through to meeting our clients and working with our team.

What would you say to another company who was reluctant about taking on work experience student?

You have to be prepared to put some effort in to planning a placement, and it’s important the student leaves with a sense of having achieved something, but it’s absolutely fascinating the ideas an external viewpoint can bring to your business if you allow and encourage discussion and ideas. Our placement students often end up working with us as freelancers or full-time employees once they graduate, so it’s a great way to test out students true capabilities before employing them, and can tell you much more about their work ethic and abilities than an interview can. I always expect my placement students to give it 110% when they are on placement with me, but I work hard to make sure that once they leave us, I support them as much as possible with useful employment contacts, references and flagging up jobs to them.

For more information visit – www.trendbible.co.uk