Hello readers, my name is Tom Hart, and I am studying the Business and Administration T level at Weston College. I would love to tell you about my industry placement at Yugo and what it involves.

My placement at Yugo involves me working closely with the finance team, together we process payments and manage all the financial aspects of Yugo around Europe. My role specifically is to help my colleagues ensure that the finances are accurate, delivered, and received on time. I spend a lot of time using systems like Xelix, NetSuite and Excel. I use these systems to create lots of information regarding Yugo’s finances. I am also very familiar with doing the physical post, some days involved me opening over 200 pieces of physical mail. 

All of these processes might seem small scale, but they actually help Yugo keep their tenants organised and up to date with their payments, there are over 160,000 tenants that are apart of Yugo. The work that I do alone helps to cover thousands of these students and makes sure that their payments get through consistently allowing them to use Yugo’s services.

I have been learning many different skills that can really benefit my future career, things like accuracy, which is one of the most important things that I have learned, has been key in every piece of work I do for Yugo. Having access to all of the experience around me is a huge benefit not only because of the knowledge they hold but also because of what they can give, and it has allowed me to learn much further than I thought I would have.

After arriving at the office, my first job is creating and processing invoices, normally I cover the Spanish invoices, but I also help do the Ireland invoices. Once that is completed, I help to organise the spreadsheets that a colleague may need help with, this can allow them to work on a further task at the same time as teaching me what I am doing with all the information and what my work leads to. Occasionally, I will make a trip down to the bank to transfer some cheques, or head down to the post office to post some mail. Finally, I have also been introduced into processing money into the business, allowing me to receive payments and send money out as well. My days normally vary but this is the main jobs that I do.

I have received lots of support from both Yugo and Weston College. Yugo have offered me many resources and different types of support due to me working a large amount of my time at home. My colleagues also have been very friendly with teaching and showing me what to do and if I ever go wrong, the environment feels like a very level playing field where everyone is equal, no matter the title or role.

Weston College have also offered lots of support, offering to help me find another placement if Yugo couldn’t offer me what I was looking for, as well as helping me to adapt what I have learnt with Yugo.

Weston College have given me more than enough resources through teaching whether it involves using real world systems like excel or understanding different sectors of business. Fortunately, my finance units in college have aligned with some of the work I do at Yugo, allowing me to learn Yugo’s processes quicker than I thought I would have, also allowing me to work independently more often.

Some of the skills I have learnt include accuracy, communication, and understanding real life processes. These have allowed me to improve my formality, quality of work, and how well I work in a team. These skills will be beneficial to me in the future due to me wanting to pursue a career in finance and business. I have always found it difficult when someone asks me what I want to do when I am older, but this course and the placement have really helped me decide what I want to pursue when I’m older.

A standout moment for me was when a colleague gave me a piece of work to do that, he had been stuck on for a while, he explained to me that it was a long task that was taking him weeks to finish, so he asked me to have a go to get some more progress in, he said he expected that it would take me a few weeks to complete. So, when I completed the piece of work by the end of the day, the look of shock and appreciation on his face made me realise the good feeling of doing some hard work, and because of that it will be a standout moment for me for a long time.