Work placements

What are the benefits of work placements?

A placement is a great way to build your skills and put what you’ve learned throughout your degree into practice. As well as developing soft skills like teamwork and communication in a professional setting, you might develop more technical skills. For example, if you’re studying one of our Architecture, Design and Built Environment (ADBE) courses, you might go on site visits and work on live projects, or on an Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences (ARES) placement, you might gain hands-on experience of animal welfare.

Placements also have huge benefits for your future career plans. They are a great way to try out what you think could be your potential career path and gain work experience which can be adapted for any future role. You’ll gain industry connections, earn a salary, and generally gain more experience and skills to help you as you navigate your life after graduation.

Where can I find a placement opportunity?

At NTU, you will be able to find a placement opportunity on our dedicated jobs website, MyEmployability. There are a combination of different placements available to you from short placements and internships, to full year placements, with some opportunities exclusive to NTU.

Students can also “self-source” their placements using other placement search engines, their own contacts and speculative applications.

However you choose to source your placement, NTU’s Employability team are there every step of the way. They can support you with applications, interviews and navigating those first few weeks of your placement. You’ll receive regular job alerts based on your preferences and be visited by the Employability team in your lectures.

If you are successful in securing a placement, you’ll gain access to our exclusive placement year community on LinkedIn, meaning you’ll still feel part of NTU.

Worried  about accommodation?

We know that a significant worry for our students is the need to secure accommodation for the next academic year - it’s also one of the main reasons that students might stop their placement search.

This year, NTU is delighted to offer our students additional accommodation support while searching for a placement:

• If you secure a placement in Nottingham, the East Midlands region or even if you haven’t yet secured a sandwich placement, Student Accommodation Services will support you with finding a room in either NTU-owned, partner or private accommodation.
• If you find a sandwich placement after you’ve secured your accommodation, provided that your accommodation is NTU-owned, Student Accommodation Services will work with you to cancel your room booking and can also advise you if your room is with a privately owned or partner accommodation provider. You’ll be asked to show proof your placement is University-approved.

What businesses have students gone on placement to?

At NTU, we are proud to say that our students have been able to gain a placement opportunity at hundreds of different employers across the UK and further afield. Here’s a list of some of the employers that have hosted an NTU placement student. Could your future employer be on the list?

• Bosch
• Disney
• Next
• Jaguar Land Rover
• Siemens
• NHS
• National Crime Agency
• Microsoft
• Ikea
• Savills
• Nottingham Trent University

NTU as a placement employer

We take on over 20 students each year across the University to work in a variety of placement roles. You can find our year-long placements on MyEmployability and short placements on InPlace. You'll get to see how the University operates, gaining insider knowledge on what we actually do for our students and staff. These opportunities are exclusive to NTU.

Want to hear more about our placements?

Listen to our podcast, “A Diary of an Intern”, to hear more from our students on what they thought about their placement year at NTU.