Undergraduate Placement Information for Employers
What is an Undergraduate Placement Year?
A Placement is an opportunity for a student to spend a whole year (48 weeks) working for a company as an employee on a fixed term contract, gaining valuable work experience and receiving a salary during their University course. The student should be treated like any other paid employee throughout the duration of their contract of employment.
A Placement is pivotal in the development of students’ future employability by providing the link between academic knowledge taught within the University framework, and its practical application within a workplace.
Students, employers and tutors are the three main stakeholders in organised work placements. Much of the success or failure of a Placement is due to how well the three parties co-operate in relation to the organisation and management of the Placement process.
The Placement Year is usually completed between students’ second and final years of study (i.e. after they have finished their second year).
Students will also study an additional 40 credits during their Placement Year, so the employer needs to please recognise that their employee is also still a student! Some employers permit their student employees time within the working week to dedicate to their studies, which is very much appreciated although not essential: some students have not worked more than a few hours per week before, and find the adjustment from student life to full-time work life rather challenging! Employer support during this period of adjustment is essential.
A Placement also provides students with valuable links to industry, which may be mutually beneficial when the students graduate: many students are offered permanent positions with the company they did their placement with, which, for the company, reduces recruitment costs significantly, and the company and student both know what they are getting should a permanent position arise.
Offering a student a paid Placement Year position will bring fresh ideas into your organisation, from the most up to date research and teaching possible. Many previous placement hosts have found that students, being objective participants, come up with great ideas which have either saved the company money, or generated more income. What’s not to like?
Students usually choose to work in the industry they think they wish to graduate into, while those who are unsure take the opportunity to ‘test out’ a couple of industries to see what they are best suited to. Either way, the experience is invaluable and an essential part of the learning process.
If you offer a Placement opportunity, in addition to the study the student will be doing as part of their University course, they are required to attend University for two days through their Placement Year. It would be very much appreciated if you are able to permit the student the day either as annual leave, or grant them a day off work to attend these full-day Review Days which are mandatory.
Placement Information for Employers: some Frequently Asked Questions
Are there criteria the job I may offer needs to meet?
There are a range of criteria which all Undergraduate Placements need to meet in order to be recognised as a Placement role:
Placements should last for a period of 52 weeks (including a minimum of 4 paid weeks’ annual leave) and must have commenced by mid-July at the earliest and 1st September at the very latest. Only in extreme circumstances will a placement be permitted to start after this date. Placements must be completed within a single academic year and cannot overlap into the end of the current second year, or the beginning of the third / final year.
Due to the length of the placement, all Placement roles must be paid and must meet National Minimum Wage or Living Wage levels (depending on the student’s age).
All placement opportunities must be formally approved by a Work-based Learning (WBL) Tutor PRIOR TO THE STUDENT STARTING THEIR PLACEMENT. Approval is not automatic, and the nature of the role will be assessed as to its suitability in providing the relevant experience for students to be able to fully engage with the assignments.
Approval will be given once the WBL Tutor is assured that:
* the proposed job role will enable satisfactory completion of the learning outcomes for the appropriate Placement Year modules;
* sufficient support by the employer is available to complete the learning experience;
* the student is able to undertake the academic requirements for the year, and
* the employer conforms to Health & Safety requirements, including assessing risks to the student within the workplace, offering the student a comprehensive Induction programme, and training them as required.
It must be understood that the student has the primary relationship with you, the employer, not the University. Although still registered as a full time student while on placement, the student is an employee of their host organisation and must act accordingly: only in rare circumstances will University tutors or staff get involved in the student-employer relationship.
In order to meet the above criteria, four documents are required to be completed and provided or signed by the employer:
1) An official Job Description for the role the student will be doing. This will be assessed in terms of the student being able to meet the learning outcomes of the Placement Year. Please do note that not all jobs are suitable and the WBL tutors will assess this from this document.
2) An offer letter or email which covers a range of points including start date, end date, line management details, salary and so on. A template will be provided to the student which the employer can use.
3) A completed Employer Record Form (again, this is available to the student to download and request their Manager completes)
4) A completed Health and Safety Form (a template form is available for the student to download and pass to you for completion)
All four documents need to be emailed to the Placements Office who will forward to a WBL Tutor for approval.
What do students study when they are on work placement?
Students on placement are just like any other employee in that they are employed by the company to fulfill a particular job role. However, placement students will also be studying in addition to their full-time job role.
During students’ Placements, they will be studying for an additional 40 University credits which is made up of one additional module with three assignments.
The module is called “The Placement Year: Organisations in Context” and it requires students to apply a recognised model of external factors called the STEEPLE framework to their host organisation.
Firstly, students must identify the key external factors that do or could affect their host organisation, before choosing just one to write a literature review on. Finally, students are asked to present recommendations to their host organisation on how to avoid any potential outcomes from the chosen key external factor, or how to enhance positive outcomes. You can imagine that Brexit has been a popular choice of external factor this year!
Students follow a very strict ethics protocol for their assignments, meaning that all references to the organisation, and those employed by the organisation, will be confidential AND anonymised. Only the two marking and moderating tutors, plus an external examiner (if the work is selected) will read the work.
How are students supported when they are on Placement?
Students will be allocated an academic supervisor who will visit the student in the workplace twice, and guide them on a one-to-one basis during their work-based assignments.
It it usual that the first visit lasts between 2 and 3 hours, so having somewhere the student can meet their tutor in private would be beneficial. A coffee is always welcome too!
On both occasions, particularly the first, we warmly welcome the opportunity for the academic supervisor to meet with the student’s line manager/supervisor to discuss a student’s progress, but this is not a requirement of the programme.
As part of the recruitment process it is essential that all employers have a robust Induction programme into their business, in order to help the new employee settle in, meet people and become familiar with the surroundings, and to help with the adjustment from student life to work life! This is a tried and tested way to get the best from your student recruit, faster, and can make all the difference between a successful Placement or not.
Apart from the requirement for the student to attend the mandatory Review Days back at the University and the assignments the student will be completing, as mentioned in the ‘What is an Undergraduate Placement Year’ tab, employers just need to treat their Placement student as they would any other employee. This should include Performance Management through one-to-ones and Appraisals, and can include a Probationary Review early into the role.
Can International Students (Tier 4 Visa) work full time?
International students are able to work full-time because their placement, once approved, is an integral part of their course and is therefore permissible under current UKVI Tier 4 Visa rules.
Guidance in paragraph 297 of the current rules explains that, “If you are a Tier 4 (general) student…then in certain circumstances, you will be permitted to undertake a work placement as part of your course, providing it is an integral and assessed part of your course”.
The student will provide you with a CAS letter from the University confirming that they are able to work full-time. Please retain a copy of this letter for your records.
For more information, please see the UKVI Rules for Employers section.
I want to offer an Undergraduate Placement to a Student OR I want to find out more please
If you wish to discuss the possibility of offering a Placement position, or you definitely would like to, please click below to email the Placements and Work Based Learning Office
UKVI Rules For Employers
International students are able to work full-time because their placement is an integral part of their course, and therefore permissible under current UKVI Tier 4 Visa rules.
Guidance in paragraph 297 explains that, “If you are a Tier 4 (general) student… then in certain circumstances, you will be permitted to undertake a work placement as part of your course, providing it is an integral and assessed part of your course”.
The student will provide you with a CAS letter from the University confirming that they are able to work full-time. Please retain a copy of this letter for your records.