28 September 2022
Best 100 Student Employers for skills development, inclusion and CSR
What do TripAdvisor, Glassdoor & RateMyPlacement.co.uk all have in common? Quite a lot. Bursting onto the scene in 2007, we’ve been championing feedback from placement students by encouraging them to write user-generated reviews.
Seeing as we hadn’t changed the review questions on RateMyPlacement.co.uk since our launch in 2007, last year we took the plunge.
After a ton of research, we created new review questions, meaning students who had finished work experience in the UK could now share their thoughts on things like skills development, inclusivity and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
What’s more, we used these questions to create specific mini-tables per question, highlighting the employers who’ve ranked highest in these areas. So if you’ve been wanting to find out more about a company and see whether you’d fit their culture, now is your moment.
The Best 100 Student Employers for skills development
To find this information, we created a table based on a series of questions that students were asked during the review process:
Q3. How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
Q4. How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
Q5. How would you rate your development of personal/soft skills during the experience?
Let’s find out which amazing employers ranked in the top 10!
Software firm Adobe topped the chart, with PepsiCo in second place and the Bank of England in third. One Software Engineering intern commented:
“I’ve learned new skills and developed existing ones. I’ve improved my technical skills and can now program languages, as well as use tools for engineering and design practices.”
It’s not just technical skills students at Adobe are developing, soft skills are important too.
One student said:
”I improved my existing soft skills: communication, teamwork, leadership, asking for feedback whenever that’s needed and also giving feedback.”
| 1 | Adobe |
| 2 | PepsiCo |
| 3 | Bank of England |
| 4 | WarnerMedia |
| 5 | American Express |
| 6 | Rothschild & Co |
| 7 | BSH |
| 8 | Credit Suisse |
| 9 | Lane Clark & Peacock |
| 10 | Visa |
The Best 100 Student Employers for inclusion
These are the questions we asked students to review around the topic of inclusion:
Q13. How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
Q15. How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
According to some of the feedback we’ve received, financial services are in the top 10 for inclusion, with Barclays, American Express, Bloomberg and EY all featuring and Bank of America standing tall at the top of the pile.
One insight student at Bank of America was very complementary and gave great feedback:
“I felt the company culture and atmosphere were extremely welcoming, with different employee support systems, such as LEAD for women. We were introduced to the different communities within the bank from the very first day and that gave massive insight into the support system and culture that is unique to Bank of America.”
| 1 | Bank of America |
|---|---|
| 2 | Adobe |
| 3 | EY |
| 4 | Eaton |
| 5 | Arup |
| 6 | Bloomberg |
| 7 | Microsoft |
| 8 | American Express |
| 9 | Barclays |
| 10 | City Year UK |
The Best 100 Student Employers for CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is important. According to Harvard Business School:
“Nearly 70% of employees say they wouldn’t work for a company without a strong purpose. Ninety percent of employees who work at companies with a strong sense of purpose say they’re more inspired, motivated, and loyal.”
A First Insight report showed that:
“62% of Millennials and Gen Z are willing to spend an extra 10% for sustainable products”.
So we asked students this question in the reviews:
Q16. How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
Let’s find out what they had to say!
Bank of America, Visa and Oracle came out as the top three.
One Business Development intern at Visa shares how connected they felt to the company:
“Pride month was a huge deal which I loved! There is a huge emphasis on volunteerism and most importantly social impact and sustainability.”
| 1 | Bank of America |
| 2 | Visa |
| 3 | Oracle |
| 4 | abrdn |
| 5 | Credit Suisse |
| 6 | Royal Bank of Canada |
| 7 | City Year UK |
| 8 | NatWest Group |
| 9 | EY |
| 10 | Adobe |
We hope this has given you insight into some amazing employers to apply for! You can see the Best 100 Student Employers table and all the Best 100 Student Employers per question here too.
If you’re wondering what feedback students have left after their experiences, view all 70,000+ reviews and search for a particular company.
