Placement years

Placement years

Placement years give you the opportunity to explore your career plans and find out what your chosen path is really about. You get the chance to meet people in the business and you even get paid.

Tell me more

Larger graduate recruiters offer industrial work placements that can last between 6 and 12 months, sometimes called sandwich placements or industrial traineeships. Larger graduate recruiters see placements as an extended trial period before entering a graduate position with the company. Many companies now retain more than 70% of their work experience recruits.

Who is eligible?

It varies if you’re doing a sandwich course, but industrial and vacation placements are predominantly offered to penultimate year students.

Where can I find one?

Your best source of vacancies is your careers centre; they handle hundreds of these vacancies each year. It is unlikely an opportunity will be handed to you on a plate, so you need to get proactive.

Academic departments have vacancy notice boards that employers looking for specific degrees target. So watch out for those. And also keep in contact with your tutor, as they could keep a great amount.

Smaller or newer companies often need graduate skills but don’t use traditional recruitment methods, so it’s worth trying to create your own placement with those.

Identify and research possible companies from the business pages of local newspapers or take a look at small companies based on the many science parks adjacent to universities. The more motivated you appear, the more interested they will be in you.

Try to address your application to a named person, call the company switchboard to find out who you need to write to.  Your careers service can advise you on making effective speculative applications and may produce a local employer directory with lists of potential target companies.

Try calling a company Human Relations Department if you can’t find out enough information about them, or if you want to find out if your eligible placement.

Your careers service arranges Employers Presentations and Recruitment Fairs, where you can meet employers first hand. So watch out for those.

Don’t underestimate your own network contacts – family, friends, course tutors, alumni networks, student membership of professional institutes can all be sources of opportunities.

When do I apply?

Recruitment has a peak time, which is November to February, with some closing dates before Christmas. Some international exchange programmes have closing dates in December for the following summer, due to the huge scale of them.

Tips for applications:

• Application is by Employer Application Form or CV and covering letter. Remember, many of these placements turn into graduate job offers. Get help and information from your careers service before applying as entry can be very competitive.
• Build up a picture of the company before applying and refer to your notes again before interview. Look into the company history, how many people they employ, how they are doing in the market? And what recent developments have been occurring.  
• A phone call may be a good move if you’re applying late in the year. Have your notes in front of you and the names and direct line number of the person you need to talk to. Be clear and persistent as you may well be passed from pillar to post.