What is the Optional Placement Year?

  • A full year’s paid work between your second and third year designed to provide you with the opportunity to ‘try out’ a role or industry sector before you graduate and enter the graduate recruitment labour market.  Look upon it as a practice year where you gain valuable experience and exposure to the world of work, while building up a great CV and creating amazing networks of professionals!

  • You study an additional 40 credit module at Level 5 during your placement.  (See below.)

  • You have the opportunity to swap your 2 lowest grades (40 credits) from 2nd year with grades from Placement Year (non-professionally accredited modules) which means you can raise your average grades if you do better on the Placement Year, and thus enhance your degree classification!

  • You are supported for the whole year by a personal & academic tutor– email, online support, telephone etc.

  • You retain your full time student status and are therefore eligible for student finance in the same way you may be getting your fees paid now, although many students do choose to pay the fee as a one-off rather than add to their loan.  Your choice!

  • As a full time student you should be able to avoid paying Council Tax for the year, although some councils do challenge this depending on where you placement is.

  • Allocated Tutor comes to visit you in your workplace at least once and supports you for the full year in work (not just the academic year).

  • Cost – £1100 for the year (subject to change annually) which covers the cost of the 40-credit module (which you will earn in your first months’ pay!), the personal tutor support you will get, and the placement visits (which is where your allocated tutor comes to see you at work, usually twice over the year.)

  • Awarded an additional Certificate when you graduate, called the ‘Business Internship Award’ if you pass the year, with Pass, Merit or Distinction – appears on your graduation transcript too!

 

The Placement Year module

This 40-credit module runs alongside your Placement Year, and has a total of 3 assessments which are submitted between November and April.  The module is at Level 5, the same as your second year modules, so if you achieve better grades on the placement year, you can usually substitute your two lowest existing grades with your better Placement Year grades.  This enhances your average grade which is carried into your final year, and can have a really positive impact on your Final Degree Classification!  It’s win-win!

What are the Placement Year Criteria?

All Placements need to meet a range of criteria in order to gain approval.

Full details are available on a separate site which you will have access to when you are a student, but these are the ‘headline’ criteria:

  • The deadline for you to have received approval and have started your placement is 1st September between your second and third year of study, and you must have received approval before you start.

  • The role must be a fixed term contract, i.e. it has a start date and a clear end date that fits the above date.

  • The role you have been offered must be full time, between 35 and 48 hours of work per week. 

  • Your role must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage per hour for your age.

  • You can accept any role that will allow you to complete the academic requirements of the module you will study.  Basic roles or ‘Saturday’ type roles such as production lines, factories, restaurant/waitering or warehouse work are not usually acceptable.

In addition to this, your course’s Award Map MUST show the Optional Placement Year module on it between years 2 and 3, otherwise you cannot participate.  Nearly all programmes within the Faculty of Business and Law and many Joint Honours Programmes have the Optional Placement Year.  However, this can change annually, so please check your own Award Map for the year you begin your course.  You should see module HRM2053 on your Award Map between stages 2 and 3.

I am an International student - can I do a Placement Year?

Yes!  International students can do the Optional Placement Year, although you will need support from the International Student Support Services (ISSS) team because, if you secure a placement, this will add an extra year of study to your course and the visa you will have been issued with will not be long enough.

Each student should have individual advice around this as there is a ‘study cap’ on how long you are able to be in the UK on a student visa, studying an Undergraduate degree. The ISSS team have access to your individual visa and they can check that adding the Optional Placement Year will not exceed this, and they will be able to give you advice about a visa extension, the cost implications and the process itself.  You can begin the process of sorting your visa out when you get offered a placement.

Your prospective placement employer may ask for proof that you are eligible to work full time, and the ISSS team can also write you a letter to support your job application (a copy of your CAS letter usually suffices).  You may need a letter, if the company wants to see one, after they have offered you a role, although occasionally some employers do ask for this as part of the recruitment process.  Early engagement with ISSS is important, so you get your letter quickly and can secure that placement!