Business Management with a Year in Industry

Business management with a year in industry combines a rigorous academic education in the theory and practice of how organisations operate with an extended period of real professional experience that significantly enhances your career prospects and your understanding of how business principles apply in practice. Business management as a discipline covers the core functions of commercial life, including marketing, finance, operations, human resource management, and strategy, while also engaging with the economic, ethical, and social contexts in which organisations exist and make decisions.

At the University of Liverpool, this four-year programme includes a year in industry typically taken after the second year of academic study, giving you an extended period working within a business or other organisation. During this year you will apply the knowledge and skills you have developed in your academic studies to real professional challenges, building your professional network, your commercial awareness, and your understanding of how organisations actually function. This experience often proves to be as formative as the academic elements of the degree, and it frequently leads to graduate employment with the host organisation or within the same sector.

Liverpool's business school has connections to the business community across the North West and beyond, and these relationships support the placement process.

Business management graduates with significant industry experience are particularly well placed in the graduate labour market. Management training schemes in large companies, roles in consulting and financial services, positions in marketing, operations, and human resource management, and opportunities in entrepreneurship and smaller businesses are all common destinations. The year in industry demonstrates to employers that you can apply academic knowledge in practice, work professionally within an organisation, and deliver results, all of which are significant differentiators.

Some graduates continue to postgraduate study in specialist areas of management or to MBA programmes, building on the foundation the degree and the industry year have established.