When BU alumnus Simon Denning launched a company to help take the hassle out of organising stag dos, little did he know that it would go on to offer career opportunities for other university graduates.

Simon founded Stagweb in 1999, partly in response to his own frustrating experiences of organising a stag weekend for a mate. The Bath-based company now employs a team of 34 to provide trips and experiences tailored to groups of friends celebrating their pre-wedding party. Having started taking on placement students 15 years ago, today two of its directors and four of its six department heads are former interns.

Simon, who studied HND Business Information Technology at Bournemouth Polytechnic – a forerunner of BU - said: “We’ve had some fantastic success stories here, with some motivated students either coming back post-degree or going into a job on the back of some genuinely useful experience. In my opinion, having a placement at a busy and dynamic company is going to put students way ahead when it comes to the graduate job hunt. Ultimately, it’s all about the fit for both the students and ourselves and we love it when interns choose to start their careers with us.”

Of the 30 students to have taken a placement at Stagweb, 15 have gone on to join the company full time.

Steve Roddy is among the BU alumni now employed at the company. Steve graduated from the BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing in 2006 is now Managing Director and Company Director at StagWeb. He said: “Having been a placement student myself I know how useful the hands-on experience can be. It certainly helped me with my final year studies, but more importantly it gave me a great advantage and spring board into full time employment post-graduation. Many of our former placements have stayed in touch, in a few days’ time some of our team are supporting one of our most recent placement students by attending an event he’s organised as part of his dissertation.”

Stagweb predominantly takes on students from the South West, with the majority coming from BU. The interns join departments including sales, marketing, finance, HR and event management with placements typically running for between 40 and 52 weeks.