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. Undergraduate courses that offer this are sometimes called sandwich courses as the placement year is sandwiched between the first and final year of your course.
The benefits of doing a work placement are that you will:
- Learn more about organisations and prepare for professional life.
- Improve your employability by developing skills and knowledge that employers look for.
- 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.
| 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 |
Finding a work placement
A work placement is not guaranteed. Finding a work placement is your responsibility with support and advice from the placement team and the other support services at the University. It is a challenge and a really valuable experience of applying for a job. Here is some important advice to get you started:
- Check to see if the course you are interested in has a placement.
- Visit the placement team for your course as soon as you start. Take some ideas or a list of possible companies.
- Do some skills training. Both the Careers service and the Students' Union offer sessions on interview practice, applying for a job and writing your CV.
- Prepare 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 by going to as many in-sessional English sessions as you can (these are free of charge), speaking up in class and working hard on your presentations to improve your confidence.
