Considering a placement year between Stage 2 and Final Year? Find out how 2025 graduate Maya’s placement with Toyota in 2023 helped her.
Maya, 2025 Graduate
"Before starting university, I had no idea what career path I wanted to take. Even when I was applying for placements, I didn’t have a clear focus on the roles I was applying for – I just applied for anything that sounded interesting without focussing too much on specific industries. I thought that working at a car company seemed cool. But I didn't know much about the role I'd applied for at Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK until I got to the assessment centre and had my final interview. This is when I realised that the role and organisation may be a good fit for me. To be honest, I had never seen myself working in supply chain management before my placement, and figured that it would only be a short-term thing while on placement to get some experience. However, my time at Toyota completely changed this.
My role
"During my placement, I worked with the external logistics team to make sure suppliers across the UK and Europe delivered car parts on time so that production didn’t stop. Every day was different and brought new challenges. It was hands-on, fast-paced and genuinely rewarding. It gave me a real taste of what supply chain management is like and showed me how much I enjoy it. I realised that this may be a really good industry for me to work in as I often get bored quite easily and didn’t like the idea of sitting behind a desk doing the same thing every day.
Graduate scheme offer
"I enjoyed my placement a lot and was offered a place to come back on the graduate scheme, starting in September 2025 after finishing my degree. However, I always planned to take the year off and travel and so was very nervous about asking whether I would be able to possibly defer this. After asking, the company was flexible, enabling me to defer my start to the year after in September 2026 or to even start earlier if I wanted to, depending on what works best for me. Knowing that I have this option has taken a lot of the pressure off and their response to my request has made me much more likely to go back.
My future plans
"While I still plan to travel after university, my placement has given me direction for my future. Supply chain management is an industry that I could see myself working in the future, which I never have known without this experience. I’m excited to see where this path takes me, and my time at Toyota showed me that a job can be more than just work - it can be something you genuinely enjoy."
Explore your options
Interested in finding out more about placements or study abroad? You can find out more about placements on here, or you can contact the Business School’s Placement & Study Abroad Team at nubs.placementandstudyabroad@ncl.ac.uk