Placements are a great way to boost your employability and are offered by a wide range of courses. The students below all went on year-long placements as part of an industrial or professional experience year. Successfully completing a placement goes well beyond just increasing employability however - putting learning into context, developing discipline and time management in a professional setting, and cultivating vital networks in your field are just some of the benefits identified by the students below.
Your placement could take you anywhere - from Calais helping refugees to Sellafield managing units in a nuclear waste facility, the possibilities are endless!
All the videos below were filmed over eight weeks by a summer intern at the careers department.
Alison’s placement was with the Medical Research Council in the Gambia – placements could take you anywhere!
Brandon talks about how his placement has informed his future career choices.
Ben’s placement secured him an amazing graduate job with a tech company and gave him the discipline to excel in third year.
Callum tells us about his placement year at Sellafield nuclear plant and the influence it’s had on what he wants to do next.
Sam talks about his placement with Unilever and how it helped him knuckle down in his final year.
Alex tells us about his placement with Sanofi and how it’s really prepared him for the world of work.
Nick’s placement with Reckitt Benckiser gave him first-hand experience of being a valued member of a large transnational corporation.
Eugene talks about his placement at an oil refinery, and how it set him up for success with his final-year project.
Freya organised her own placement in Calais working with migrants and refugees.
Tom’s placement was at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales – he talks about how the placement put what he’d learnt into perspective.
Mojib Ali shares how he has used skills and knowledge developed in his Psychology degree within his placement year and how gaining experience along with a degree is powerful.