Tag: Employer Insight

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Careers programmes

Shape Your Future with Employer Insight Visits 

Employer Insight Visits (formerly Work Shadowing Week), give Queen’s students the opportunity to spend a day in participating organisations to get an insight into an organisation and sector and observe professionals in practice. 
 
Employer Insight Visits will take place from Monday 30 March – Thursday 02 April 2026. 
 
The objective of the visit is for you to gain important real life organisation insights into work and have the chance to engage in meaningful conversations and observations in a workplace setting. 
 
The day itself will involve but not be limited to, a facilities/site tour, opportunity to ask questions of the team, to include lunch and observe some work in action. Transport is provided to the Employers premises. 
 
Employers Taking Part in Employer Insight Visits 2026  

  • ALMAC 
  • ARUP 
  • Baker McKenzie 
  • Cooneen Group 
  • Foot Anstey McKees  
  • Funds Axis 
  • Henry Brothers 
  • Kukoon Rugs 
  • McQuillan Companies 
  • Oxford Instruments 
  • PwC Ireland 
  • RSM UK 
  • SAM Aerospace 
  • Sumer Accountants 
  • The Keystone Group  

Queen’s students can apply to take part in Employer Insight Visits via MyFuture where all these opportunities will be advertised until 06 March 2026. 

Find out more about the programme and apply: 
http://go.qub.ac.uk/employerinsightvisits 
 
Remember – applications will close on 06 March 2026 so get applying! 

This is what our students had to say about 2025’s Employer Insights Visits, (formerly Work Shadowing Week):

Kirstine Dela Torre, International Business with French Student at Queen’s University Belfast

“So grateful to have taken part in the Work Shadowing Week with Energia Group! From the moment we arrived, we were welcomed with open arms (and a goodie bag), and I got to spend the day with the Micro Energy – Renewables team. 
 
It was eye-opening to see how much technical detail and teamwork goes into making renewable energy solutions work in real life. Energia Group’s commitment to making a difference was evident in every conversation. 
 
A massive thank you to Careers, Employability and Skills at Queen’s University Belfast, Lynsey Foster and to wider Energia Group for making this experience so insightful and welcoming. As a student navigating the early stages of my career, this experience reminded me that the future of energy is bright – and it’s powered by people who care deeply about impact.”
 
Eoin Loughran, BSc Geography student, Queen’s University Belfast

“I had a fantastic experience attending a work shadowing day with Energia. A big thank you to the welcoming and knowledgeable team for sharing such valuable insights into the energy sector. 
 
It was especially rewarding to see firsthand how EVs and solar panel technologies are being implemented in real-world projects, bridging the gap between the theoretical knowledge I’ve gained during my undergraduate studies and its practical application. 
 
I’m very grateful to Careers Queen’s University Belfast and to Lynsey Foster for organising this opportunity.”

Nikita Jain, MSc Finance Student at Queen’s University Belfast

“I had the pleasure of attending a Work Shadowing Day at Sumer Northern Ireland, organised through Queen’s University Belfast. It was a valuable opportunity to gain insights into the firm’s operations and learn from such a welcoming and knowledgeable team. 
 
A big thank you to Lynsey Foster for guiding us through this experience, to Careers Queen’s University Belfast for providing such a valuable opportunity and to Shannon Savage for walking us through the day. Grateful to everyone at Sumer NI for hosting us and making the day so engaging!”

Krupali Thakur, MSc Artificial Intelligence, Queen’s University Belfast

“Had a fantastic day at BT Group, an experience that truly brought the world of work to life!

From exploring BT’s rich legacy and its broad ecosystem, including Openreach, EE, and Plusnet to hands-on tech sessions, it was a day full of inspiration and learning.”
  

Hitesh Gidwani, MSc Finance, Queen’s University Belfast

“Had the amazing opportunity to shadow professionals at PwC Belfast as part of Queen’s Work Shadowing Week 2025! 
I had the chance to explore PwC’s dynamic work culture, learn about account verification, auditing processes, and discover how their core values shape everyday operations. 
 
A big thank you to Lynsey Foster for leading this initiative and to the Careers Queen’s University Belfast for making it possible, and a huge thank you to PwC and PwC Ireland especially Rachel Kelly for graciously hosting us. 
 
The experience was packed with insightful conversations, a networking lunch with PwC professionals, and an exclusive office tour giving us a first-hand look into the day-to-day life at one of the Big Four.
 
Grateful for the exposure, inspiration, and connections made!”



Categories
Careers programmes

Stock Market Challenge 2026 Winners

stock-market-challenge-2026
stock-market-challenge-2026

Our popular Stock Market Challenge returned on 28 January 2026 to provide the opportunity for Queen’s students from any course background to gain real-world experience of analysing markets and making investments.

Stock Market Challenge is a fast-moving and exciting stock market simulation game called Finance Lab Pro owned by SolutionSim, who were our hosts for the evening at the Queen’s Computer Science Building.

Set in a fictitious world financial market this competitive game gives participants the opportunity to experience analysing the market and making investments.

The best part is you do not have to be studying a finance related subject or have any specialist knowledge of finance!

It’s a game of strategic thinking and pressured decision so the students got to demonstrate many of the skills necessary for business life, including, team-working, problem-solving and critical thinking.

Students taking part enjoyed some pizza and networking with the Employers also taking part on the night, with prizes including insight opportunities with the participating Employers. This Careers programme is also Future-Ready Award accredited through the Combined Route so students who took part can apply for this award before they graduate. 

We want to give our thanks to the Employers that took part, Deloitte, Kainos, First Derivative, Funds Axis and Grant Thornton and thanks also to our delivery partner Liam Barnes at SolutionSim, and to everyone who took part and made it the success that it was!

Congratulations to our Stock Market Challenge 2026 winner Cadhan Nelis, you played a great game! And congratulations also to the runners up and everyone who took part in the popular competition.

List of Stock Market Challenge 2026 Winners and Runners Up:

1st Place – Cadhan Nelis, Queen’s Computer Science ,with William Gordon from Deloitte.

2nd place – Diarmuid Lawell, Queen’s PPE, and Robin Smyth, Queen’s PPE,  with Hannah Flemming from Kainos.

3rd place – Kyan Cassidy, Queen’s Finance, and Oliver Billing, Queen’s Applied Maths – with Joanne Marron, Aoibhin McKinney from First Derivative.

4th place – Alex Dunne, Queen’s Aerospace Engineering and Colm Daly, Queen’s Aerospace Engineering – with Hannah McCloskey, Phoebe Callista from Funds Axis.

5th place -Yash Somaiya, Queen’s Aerospace Engineering, and Neha Hendre, Queen’s Business Management – with Conor Gallagher, Jason Smyth from Grant Thornton.

6th place – Rosaleen Grant, Queen’s Finance and Trading, and Harry Jackson, Queen’s English student.

Categories
Careers programmes

Students Tackle Real-World Problems Using Design Thinking

real-world consultancy programme

May 2024 saw the return of our interactive Real-World Consultancy Programme, with students  gaining  a different type of work experience by providing a consultancy service to real clients and working on a real challenge that those clients face.

The Queen’s University Belfast  students from different disciplines were  facilitated through a Design Thinking process to resolve the client’s problem with hosts Patricia Flanagan and Michaelle Dolan of Rejig.

The students applied the design thinking process, tools and mindset to live challenges provided by companies including, Aflac Northern Ireland, BDO Northern Ireland, Gig Grafter Limited, KPMG Ireland, The Phoenix Education Centre, and SureCert.

The busy and interactive programme ran over four days and provided a great opportunity for students to develop highly valued Design Thinking skills prior to them going on to take up a placement, internship or a graduate role.

A massive thank you to Patricia Flanagan and Michelle Dolan of Rejig for coming in to the host the programme, to our Careers Consultant Ludovica Piccinini for overseeing the programme, and to all the employer partners and our amazing students who took part, making this year’s programme a resounding success.

We are already looking forward to Real-World Consultancy 2025.

Below is some feedback from employers and students who participated on the programme.

Thanks to Ludovica Piccinini and Patricia Durkin for the invite to the Careers, Employability and Skills at Queen’s University Belfast Real World Consultancy Programme.

It was great to spend some time at Queen’s University Belfast this week with a team of highly talented students that attempted to resolve a KPMG Ireland business challenge focused on corporate citizenship.

Well done to all the participants and a special shout out to Michael, Majd, Lauren, Ruth and Muhammad for their efforts on our challenge this week (expertly stretched by Patricia Flanagan and Michelle Dolan as always!).

Paul Braden, KPMG, Ireland

Recently, I had the pleasure of taking part in the 2024 cohort of QUB’s Real World Consultancy Programme. This programme allowed me to work in teams with individuals from diverse disciplines with the end goal of providing consultancy services to real life clients.

My team was partnered up with Emma Shaw from Phoenix Education Centre. Emma alerted us to the challenges she was facing and gave us feedback and valuable guidance throughout the process. As a group we came up with innovative ideas to mitigate against these challenges and provided solutions and recommendations that could potentially be implemented by Emma.

Many thanks to Patricia Flanagan and Michelle Dolan for your valuable guidance throughout the program and enabling us to utilise our imagination to obtain useful solutions.

Amith Varghese, Queen’s University Belfast MSc International Business student

Recently, I took part in the Real-World Consultancy Program ran by Careers Queen’s University Belfast. My group got the chance to tackle a real-life problem presented to us by Aflac Northern Ireland; “How Might We Develop Future Tech Talent in NI.” Our group came up with innovative solutions after being introduced to a new way of thinking “Design Thinking” developed by Stanford University. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Deivydas Sakys, Shubham Soni & Akinyemi Folasewa and a huge thank you to Isabel Stacey & Jason Brennan from Aflac Northern Ireland who helped us throughout the week.

Paddy Latimer, Queen’s University Belfast, International Business with Spanish student

This immersive 4-day program equipped us with ”Design Thinking”, a problem-solving approach developed by Stanford University. Patricia Flanagan and Michelle Dolan guided us through the process.

The program was a series of incredibly interactive sessions with dozens of fun activities that fostered invaluable knowledge about design thinking. We learned the importance of stepping outside our comfort zones, fostering group creativity, and embracing empathy.

The program instilled valuable skills in storytelling, identifying key concepts like divergence and convergence, and the importance of inclusion. It also highlighted the power of reformation, building connections, and empathetic listening. Overall, this program provided an exceptional platform to apply our knowledge and prepare us for the professional world.

Riya Anandpara,  Queen’s University Belfast MSc Marketing student