Student work placements
Our student work placements enable you to utilise the skills you have gained from your degree while improving your employability. Organisations Keele students have previously secured placements with include AstraZeneca, Bentley, NHS, Nintendo, Loreal and Wedgwood.
What is a work placement?
From preparing you for the world of work to developing the soft-skills employers value, a work placement will provide you with a unique opportunity to increase your employability and gain real-world experience in your chosen field of study. At Keele, the Placements and Projects Team provides support for students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Placements within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences are administered within the Faculty as these placements are typically compulsory and embedded within the curriculum.
What are the benefits of a work placement?
A placement will provide you with a variety of ways to kick-start your career, increase your skills and clarify your goals.
- Gain practical experience and apply theoretical knowledge in a real-world setting
- Learn more about various career paths
- Acquire an understanding of how businesses function
- Build industry connections
- Employers use placement opportunities to recruit into their graduate jobs
- Develop the soft skills employers value including teamwork, decision-making and time management
- Collaborate with a broader and more varied range of individuals
Types of work placement
You will have access to a variety of placement opportunities. The type of placements available will depend on the subject you study, but may include:
Typically lasting between 9 – 12 months (although may be shorter depending on your course), the undergraduate placement year is taken between year 2 and 3 of your studies and will extend your degree by a year. On successful completion of your degree you will graduate ‘with work placement year, on your degree transcript.
Typically lasts between 1 and 3 months and is linked to your course.
Typically offers you the opportunity within your course to work in groups on a project brief set by an employer.
Typically, a live project and could be based within or outside of your course
Typically lasting between 8 weeks to 12 months dependent on course requirements.
These opportunities tend to not form part of your course and can include short term internships, vacation schemes, and insight events.