Industrial Placements - How many manage to find one?

[Ellerby83]

Just wondering really how hard it is to secure a 3rd year placement. What proportion of students suceed. It seems more and more unis are offering placements so there must be large numbers applying for the smallish amounts of placements advertised.
DS is studying Comp Sci.

@Ellerby83 One thing is certain: the university won’t tell you.

I’ve seen unis with great links advertised but not enough placements to go round. The DC then either find their own or don’t do one.

As has been discussed on another thread, these can be useful or might be less use than DC think. There’s no doubt DC going to work mature though!

I think it might also depend on the uni. Some unis don’t have many courses offering placements. Others make a big thing of it. I would ask a uni about the percentage doing placements, how many got placements directly through uni contacts and how many found their own? Also how many did each DC apply for? Did making the degree 4 years get those DC a better job over the ones who did 3 years? In other words, was it value for money? Or was starting work in a grad job after 3 years a better bet because earning a higher salary started earlier?

Whilst attending a talk at an open day with DC3, one student was giving a presentation of her placement with Enterprise Rent-a-car. I suggested DC2 apply. He did, and after a rigorous interview process, he got a place with them for a year. He enjoyed it. He had a lot of customer facing experience, did a lot of driving of a variety of vehicles, but most importantly their set up ensured he had a good understanding of their business processes, which served him well when he was looking for work post-uni. He wasn't going to go into car hire, but he learnt a lot and it was his work experience that landed him his first job. So, my advice would be to consider everything, not just something in the specific area he might want to work in in due course.

Dc can also work in their summer holidays. These jobs and internships are useful
too. My DD1 also volunteered for the National Trust. Lots of skills learned from them. She did not intend to work for them but everything she did was useful.

At an offer holder day for computer science at Lincoln with DC2, we were told there were more placements (in CS) available than students who wanted to do them. I think they I my had 10% of their cohort take them up. I don't know how true it is but he made it sound like computer science placements are fairly prevalent.

A friend's DD (not CompSci) was on the verge of having to spend her 3rd year in uni, having failed to get a placement - the uni was no help whatsoever in finding one. A parental contact saved the day, which was very lucky for her.

Start looking for placements in the sept/oct/nov of the second year . This is something we found out ourselves ... there was very little input from the university.

As previous poster stated ... consider everything ... rotations within the placement will mean you cover many areas and all will apply to the uni course in some way ( unless of course it is a niche course).

Agree with @DuesToTheDirt. The universities don't actively place students with companies - they just offer "support", which from my DS's experience isn't worth much.

It's up to the individual to look for/apply for placements.

DS is in 2nd year at Uni and has already applied to 6 or 7 placements. His uni do seem quite good and have weekly sessions on writing a cv/cover letter/assessments centre etc so they are offering support but it is still down to him to get the placement.
I was just wondering about how many do obtain placements but I suppose we will find that out over the next few months.

@Ellerby83 I think unis are very unclear about success rates! I also think unis give the impression they have plenty of placements and list all the firms out on their web sites. In reality this could be just an elite handful of opportunities and hundreds apply. A friend’s DC found this out with his RG uni. Not comp science but the placement opportunities were very much oversold and his parents were cross! So I think all your DS can do is keep trying and channel his inner Mr Micawber.

Yes, you have to tenacious and also good at managing your time as you're effectively going through the same process as applying for graduate jobs. Many employers, especially big ones, will be looking to recruit interns so they make the process rigorous to get the best candidates for them. It'sI believe it's the same with summer internships.

As others have said, university help tends to be more along the lines of careers support rather than handing out placements. Some universities do have companies who go to then exclusively for placements if they have connections that go back a long time.

It's worth asking the university what percentage of their subject cohort typically go on placement. At all the open days we went to someone asked that question and course leaders were transparent about it.

DS in the process of applying now, and its something we paid quite alot of attention to at the open days. I also did a placement year back in the day so understood what was involved.

I think there are some universities / courses where it is compulsory - i.e. the course is a 4 year course from the outset - not a 3 year course with an optional placement year. From our experience, these unis have a much more hands-on approach. Students on these courses at these unis have lectures / seminars timetabled from the beginning of Term 1 Year 1 for career development / CV writing / placement recruitment etc etc. DS (at Loughborough where his course has a compulsory year in industry as do lots of other courses) also has access to mock interviews etc / regular careers appointments / opportunities that are advertised internally. From the couple of assessment centres that he has done so far, quite alot of the current placement students were also from these unis (Loughborough, Bath etc). I am sure that there will be students who don't find anything but according to DS, these tend to be single figure numbers from a large cohort.

Some of the other unis we visited where there was an optional year out seemed to be "if its something you want to do and manage to find one, you can defer the 3rd year" and the impression was that it was very much down to the student with very little by way of support / course content. So I think it is very much down to the course and uni, and of course how much effort the student puts in in applying and what s/he has to offer.

I asked at an open day how they helped get placements for their highly advertised business and language degree. The answer was CV writing class and mock interviews.
I'm not sure that helps much to find a placements in Germany or Spain or anywhere!

Both my DS applied to approx 40-50 companies for placements to get one. Both ended up with job offers and grad jobs from their placements.

The company I work for (IT) takes on placements but closes vacancies once they reach a certain number of applications - last year they closed after 2 days and 2.5K applications for 10 places.

Its a numbers and speed game.

Wow 2.5k applications in 2 days for 10 vacancies!
I'm assuming you work for a prestigious big name. Hoping that the smaller companies might be less competitive.

I'm interested in this too as DD (2nd year, STEM subject at Birmingham) is applying for an industrial placement year at the moment. She's applied for around 8 between September and now, been rejected from 2 and has recently had an interview for the final stage of another one. Putting in a strong application and working through the various recruitment rounds is a very time-consuming business and I don't think she is likely to apply to more than 12 or so in total. She's doing an integrated MSci course with placement year, but is considering switching to a BSc if she isn't successful in securing a placement. Her uni only seem to encourage the top 10-15% of the cohort (based on first year exam results) to apply for a placement, and they offer help with advertising placements, writing CVs and cover letters and mock interviews, but don't have direct influence with the companies offering placements, for her subject anyway. DD's keen to have a year in industry to gain more practical lab skills and figure out if a career in that industry is for her - but she's also quite keen to earn some money and have a break from academic life.

Historically, it was the polytechnics that had great links with industry. Now many unis say they do. It’s highly unlikely there are enough placements to go round. It’s also not always the case that a uni course advertised with a year in industry helps much with that goal either. Most day you just do the three year course instead.

The other thing to consider is, does it really get you further forward in the long run? If you could get a great job after three years, why not just do that? Or do a separate masters? Or an integrated masters with no year out?

I agree with this. My DD applied for 80+ GRAD PROGRAMS (top A level grades, First from top RG uni) ... to finally be offered a scheme. She was told that there were 6000 applicants for her job. It was exhausting and relentless as each opening may have up to a 5 stage assesment process.

She applied after results and knows that she wouldnt have got her first if she applied during her 3rd year.

@StrugglingAlways wow, that's shocking. I think modern life is broken in a lot of ways for young people.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/aug/29/uk-graduates-struggle-job-market#:~:text=Although%20most%20UK%20students%20find,in%20England%20aged%2021%2D30

For STEM placements, there could be the chance of working in a lab at a university - I'm a professor and have taken on placement students from other universities but only if they email me directly (there is no formal scheme). For students looking for lab experience, do try that.

@StrugglingAlways I think there needs to be much more transparency about graduate jobs and how difficult they can be to acquire. The info given by unis is very loose!

Some years ago the IFS surveyed unis and courses in terms of what uni, what course, what earnings? But this isn’t widely known. I frequently see posters say certain degrees put you in a great position for employment because dc get certain skills but the IFS didn’t agree. There is little decent research on this to inform dc over choices. Many grads I know have not got what they want at all! Many take a year to get anything at all. Perfectly decent grads but they don’t tick the boxes. Not sure they know why they don’t. One can only assume it’s not all about qualifications.

I think its all about numbers - supply and demand.

Law degrees are one of the biggest culprits.

Most dont know that there are just not the volume of training opportunities postgrad to absorb the huge numbers doing an undergraduate degree.

The unis dont care because its always a popular course and relatively cheap to deliver.

This. DD1 is currently applying, her university strongly pushes for a paid year in industry. They have returning students talk to the current second years and do offer support. I think that there is a fair degree of word of mouth too as students write to companies that currently have someone with them for a year. DD said returning students were also often saying that they had job offers for a year later when they have graduated. Friends who have DC who have done work placements have gone back to companies where they did their year in industry. DD is applying to places that would be able to use her strengths so fingers crossed.

@StrugglingAlways I totally agree with you. Many law students don’t realise that a high percentage of training positions go to non law grads too. Certainly in London. It’s a huge con for many. These courses at lower tariff unis need a cull! Giving true stats about what % actually got a training contract or pupilage needs to be transparent. There are around 6000 training solicitor positions and around 500 pupilage positions or less. I think we have three times that number studying law. Some will me international students but it’s a huge mismatch. In the past I’ve seen very low level unis advertising their law courses with pictures of students in wigs and gowns in a court setting. I would love to know how many grads ever get near a court as a barrister. Vanishingly small would be my guess. It’s mis-selling and should be stopped. Also RG over sells! Certainly at the non elite end.