Placement Year

A placement year is an amazing opportunity to learn more about the working world, but also about yourself. A placement year gives you the chance to find out more about the corporate structure and the way that you might fit in to the industry of your choice.

What is a placement year?

A placement year is a section in your undergraduate degree, where you will be taking a year out of your educational studies to gain work experience. Placement years can be undertaken in the UK or can be taken abroad.

Placement years are usually mandatory parts of certain degrees, though students can elect to take a placement year as part of their course if they wish. If a student decides to take a placement year on their degree, the degree has been known to be extended in order to accommodate a year less working.

Why do a placement year?

You can get a lot of really good industry contacts to go along with the experience you gain as well. It’s worth noting that those who do decide to do a placement year or sandwich year placement jobs, have a much higher chance of securing employment post-graduation.

Some subjects will require you to get some experience while studying whereas others will require you to do most of your learning in-house. Learning from the people in the industry is essential for some degrees, which is why they are so encouraged. There’s only so much classroom learning will teach you.

How do I get a placement at university?

If the placement is part of your course, sometimes the course provider, university or your tutor will set up the placement for you. They may have a contract with the local area, like the hospital and have students there on a regular basis. Other occasions you may need to find the placement yourself, and this can be hard.

You can seek your tutor for help and guidance, and the course should state whether you will be finding the placement yourself. If you need to find the placement yourself, that does not mean that your lecturers cannot help you if you require it, especially if you've never done anything like this before.

Where to start

Work experience is generally a volunteered and unpaid time where you work for a company or business in the field you want to be involved in. From glossy magazines to a museum, an placement can be vital and change how you feel about your chosen career.

There are lots of websites for you to see what opportunities you could be interested in, like IdeasTap which is for arts-based placements. Remember that you will need to fund your own travel and lunch. Make sure you plan ahead to fit it in with your travels or your study diary. Remember, striking a healthy work-life balance is as important as anything else.

How is a work placement different from work experience?

In reality, the two aren’t so different. Both give you the chance to gain on-the-job experience from professionals who can help provide you with industry contacts.

However, work experience is often for a shorter length of time than a work placement. Work placements tend to take a year or more to complete, whereas work experience tends to last for anywhere between a day and two months.

A work placement is also considered to be closer to an internship than actual work experience and many students tend to find a jb waiting for them afterwards, though this is not a guarantee, of course.

How do I know the placement is as good as it looks?

There are websites like RateMyPlacement which has real students and people who have attended the work experience that you are looking at, and tell you how their university placement year really was.

Sometimes employers can juice up the information to make it sound like you are interviewing a member of the royal family or looking over the prime minister’s accounts, when in fact, you are making tea for the post boy. You can look at top employers or go through the different career fields to see if it is the right thing for you.

How do I know if the placement is right for me?

Firstly, you should think about how it is directed to your chosen career. If your dream is to be a Fashion Writer then attending a placement for a TV runner at ITV isn’t going to give you an idea about what your future life will be like!

Think about how connected it is to your subject area, then your degree and then to your chosen career path. If you can tick all three boxes then surely you should have already applied by now!

What if I don’t enjoy my placement?

Placements can always be changed if the student needs them to, however, you will need to speak to your university beforehand.

Being able to change the placement will also depend on how long you have been doing it. If you are only a week or two into the placement, your university will likely tell you to carry on and to assess the option in a few months time.

If however, you are 4 months in, then your university will likely look at alternatives for you or look to have you moved to another department within the company.