Placement support is easy to promise and hard to pin down. Plenty of course providers mention “careers support” without saying what it actually is. Here is ours, in plain terms.
When it happens
Every Ashwood programme includes three months of structured placement support, which starts after teaching ends. It is part of the programme and included in the fee, not an optional extra.
The nine parts
The support is organised in three stages, with three parts in each.
Profile and positioning
- Career positioning and role mapping. Working out which roles your skills, background and capstone genuinely fit, so you apply where you are a strong candidate rather than everywhere.
- CV restructuring and optimisation. Rebuilding your CV around the new role, with your project work near the top and your previous career presented as an asset.
- LinkedIn and personal brand. Making your profile match your CV and your target role, so a recruiter who looks you up finds the same story.
Job search and interviews
- Target-employer shortlist. A focused list of organisations worth applying to, instead of a scattergun search.
- Strategic application support. Help tailoring applications to specific roles and employers.
- Interview preparation and mock interviews. Practice with realistic questions, including technical ones, and feedback on how you came across.
Offers and placement
- Professional communication coaching. How to follow up, how to talk about your career change, and how to handle the conversations around an application.
- Salary negotiation. How to judge what a role is worth and how to discuss an offer.
- UK employer expectations. How UK employers tend to recruit, and what they expect from someone joining a new team.
What is expected of you
Placement support works when you put the work in. During the three months you will be researching roles, sending applications, practising interviews and acting on feedback. The people who get the most from it treat it like a part-time job.
It also works best when there is good material to work with. That is why every course includes a project in each module and a capstone you shape around the industry you want to work in. By the time the three months start, you should have portfolio work that gives your CV and your interviews something concrete to point to.
What we guarantee
We guarantee the support itself, delivered on the stated timescales, or we refund you. The conditions are set out in our terms and conditions and on our refunds page.
What nobody can honestly promise
No course provider decides whether an employer hires you. That decision belongs to the employer. Be wary of anyone who talks as if it does not, and if a provider offers any kind of guarantee, read exactly what it covers and what you have to do to qualify.
What three months of structured support gives you is preparation, practice and feedback at the point where most people are left to job-hunt on their own.
Read next
For the evidence that makes the support work, see the portfolio projects that get interviews and how UK employers read a career-change CV.