Building bridges for tomorrow’s workforce

Our course here at Birmingham City University aligns with a strong philosophy of employment and industry focus, where we encourage placements and work experience and embed industry within the course at every availability.

Within their second year our students are presented with the opportunity to attend Events Week Live, hosted by the NEC Group and head of events Michelle Baldwin. It’s a fantastic week where students gain behind the scenes access to event spaces and event managers from across the West Midlands.

As a result, students are given an industry mentor and many students have gone on to work for the NEC Group both within their final year of study and after graduation.

Whilst attending Event Week Live, I was fortunate enough to attend the presentation from the Association of Event Venue (AEV) project manager, Alden Arnold. During the network session, I was keen to chat to Alden who explained the Academic Associate Member structure and how it would benefit our students through commitment to providing time to help them gain insights into the real-life experience of working in the venue events industry, something we strongly value as a course team.

Academic Associate membership opens doors to the event venue community for students, providing the option to secure work experience or site visits. Collaboration gives academic members an audience and opportunity to network with AEV member venues giving students a broad learning experience.

Membership also gives us access to circa 50 member venues in the UK and around the world and the AEV will help utilise these connections to initiate and evolve mentor programmes and placements enabling students to apply their theory knowledge and to experience the nature of working in an event venue.

We are very excited by our membership and are keen to make the most of all the opportunities the AEV provide!