Advice on work placements

Stand out from the crowd with an NTU work placement

Many of our undergraduate and some of our postgraduate courses offer a great opportunity for you to do a one-year paid work placement. Sometimes we call these courses 'sandwich courses' as the placement year happens in the middle of your studies, between the start and the final year of your course. A work placement guarantees that you will:

Learn more about organisations.
Improve your employability and prepare for professional life.
Improve and develop your skills and knowledge that employers look for including team work, communication, problem solving and confidence.
Test out your career options – you may find you don't want to work in that area after all and change direction.
Make contacts and get a relevant work related reference.
Build professional recognition within your field.
Improve your final year performance.
Stand out from others in the crowd with a really impressive CV.

Example paid NTU work placements
Course	Job title	Company	Approximate salary
BA (Hons) International Business	Purchasing Assistant	L'Oreal, London	£18,000
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design	Junior Designer	PMC Associates Ltd, Hong Kong	£17,000
BA (Hons) Furniture Product Design	Junior Designer	Nestlé	£10,000
MSc Engineering (Electronics)	Software trainee	Schlumberger	£30,000
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design	Junior Interior Architect	Dalziel and Pow, London	£15,000
MSc Engineering Management	Cost benchmarking and budget setting	Nissan, Leicester	£12,800

Advice on finding a work placement

Visit the placement team for your course as soon as you arrive at NTU and take along some ideas or a list of possible companies. A work placement is not guaranteed and finding a work placement is your responsibility; the placement teams will support and work with you to find your ideal placement.
Attend any training sessions on applying for a job and interview practice offered by the placement team and the Students' Union. Applying for placements is always a challenge and hard work, but it's a great way to experience what applying for a job is really like and it's definitely worth it. If you don't succeed the first time, try again. Every interview is excellent practice.
Start writing your CV. The placement team can help with this so that it is written in a style that is familiar to UK employers.
Practise your English as much as you can; go to any In-sessional English sessions that are on offer to you; try to speak up in class and work hard on your presentations.