ADD ADVICE TO FAVPlacements and internships
Although there are many types of work experience – from part-time work to work shadowing – structured placements and internships are a particularly popular way to gain career skills. They happen in a specific time frame, are usually project-based and almost always involve some structured training.
As they are usually focused on one career area, they can improve your employability more than other forms of work experience. You can explain what you achieved on a specific project to other employers and get training in some sector-specific skills.
These aren’t the only benefits, however. Once you have done an internship, you have a one-in-three chance of being offered a job by the employer with whom you did the placement, and larger companies often sponsor successful interns through their final year.
Many students returning from work placements also report that the experience has sharpened their study skills. An internship enables you to put what you have learnt into an industrial or business context in a way that you couldn’t before, and you can develop skills like time management and the ability to focus.
Internships and placements: what’s involved?
Most internships are offered to students in the summer before their final year, and year-long placements almost always make up the penultimate year of a sandwich degree course. However, once you have been accepted on to a programme, employers are usually flexible if you need to defer, particularly if this is for reasons out of your control.
Organisations of all sizes offer placements and internships.
There is a tendency for small- to medium-size businesses to want people who already have some work experience, as the smaller the organisation, the less time there is to train people in basic work skills such as writing professional e-mails. On the other hand, students in small- and medium-size businesses can quickly find themselves being given quite large amounts of responsibility.
Larger organisations tend to be less concerned with previous work experience, as they have the resources to train anyone in almost anything.
Work placements are offered across the country, although the formal summer internships offered to penultimate-year students by large graduate employers are often based in London.
Payment for work experience
Although some companies pay as much as £23,000 for a year in industry, the average is about £14,000. There are very few work-experience placements / internships that pay less than £10,000 a year. In terms of weekly pay, you can expect between £150 and £250.
Pay for holiday placements varies, but large companies usually offer competitive packages, sometimes more than £300 per week.
The benefits of internships and placements
It is true that some companies view placement schemes as a cheap way of getting in touch with the latest academic thinking. However, placements are so valuable to students starting out in their careers that there are advantages for everyone involved.
’The Summer Challenge projects we run do benefit us,’ says Jeremy Graham of Milliken, which offers three-, six- and twelve-month programmes. ’The projects are real and are based around the idea of finding ways to reduce some of the company’s costs. One student managed to find us a cost saving of potentially almost £100,000. But, in return, we provide good-quality training, and we want high-achieving placement students to go on and grow with the company when they graduate.’
It is common for companies to use placements to road-test people for permanent appointments. In general, between 20% and 30% of interns are offered graduate jobs by the companies they work for. So internships can be the first step on the ladder to career success. What are you waiting for?
