Placement information for companies

What kind of organisations take part in the scheme?

We have placed students with all types of companies from small businesses to multi-nationals, locally, nationally and internationally.

How long is a year-long placement and when can it start?

Students are required for Professional Training for a minimum period of 45 weeks. This is usually the full year after their second year of studies has finished. They are free to start work as soon as the academic session ends in late June and are available until late September of the following year. Many employers extend contracts to allow a smooth hand-over to new placement students or just because the student has become indispensable.

What sort of students are available?

The placement programme is available to all our students. Details of our programmes are available here.

What about supervision?

The employer is expected to provide the student with a supervisor, who will normally be the student's immediate manager. This person provides a point of contact between the University and the company for the duration of the placement. The University will provide an equivalent Visiting Tutor who will be the company's first point of contact with the University. The Visiting Tutor will visit the student twice during the year (usually before Christmas for the first visit and around Easter for the second visit) and be in telephone and email contact at other times.

What is the student's status?

Whilst undergoing Professional Training, the student is a full-time employee of the organisation. As such he/she will have a formal Contract of Employment and will be subject to the normal disciplinary rules and processes. In exchange, the organisation will afford the student full protection within the field of Health and Safety. In order to satisfy the University's requirements, the employer is required to complete and return a questionnaire with a declaration to this effect. There is nothing onerous about this as the questionnaire asks you to merely confirm that the usual Health and Safety requirements are in place.

Are there any problems with employing International Students?

In general, no. New regulations introduced by the UK government allow International Students to undertake paid employment as part of a sandwich programme of study. A work permit is not required. However, this is potentially a complex issue. An employer’s HR Department will be aware of the exact requirements, but please contact us, if you require further information.

What can the student expect to get out of it?

As well as the work experience which is invaluable, they will also study for a Diploma of Professional Studies (DPS). This requires completion of a dissertation and some additional reporting.

What can the employer expect to get out of it?

The employer will obviously gain a year's work from what we hope will prove to be an excellent employee. If all goes to plan, the results of the dissertation will provide the employer with some useful information. Perhaps most importantly of all, the employer is able to put the student through a year-long interview. Many placement students return to their placement employer for their first job and when they do, they become useful from day one.

What about confidentiality?

You might be worried about the confidentiality of the student's dissertation once it is delivered to the University. The student will deliver the dissertation to the employer for clearance, but what happens to it after that? You can rest-assured that the dissertation is not placed into the public domain. It is seen and assessed by the student's Visiting Tutor and then may be seen by our External Examiner who moderates a sample (about 10%) of placement work, assessments and reports. After that, the dissertation is filed away in an archive for a period of time. Along with all such archived material, it is eventually disposed of by sending it to the contractor who deals with the University's confidential waste.

How do we go about recruiting one of your students?

The first step towards employing one of our students is to contact us (see the top of the page for details).

We maintain a website of current vacancies, including deadlines, at Loughborough. We can arrange for companies to conduct interviews or tests on campus, if beneficial.

The recruiting process takes place throughout the year. Students start looking for a placement almost as soon as they return to their second year in September and so starting the recruitment process immediately is a possibility.

Early in the year our Careers and Employability Centre provide training in CV preparation and Interview Technique, and continue to support students throughout their application process. It is wise to delay your deadline until at least late October or even into November.

Students will be taking their examinations in the last two weeks of January and the first week in February and also in the last week of May and the first two weeks of June. It is best to avoid these dates for your application deadlines.

Regulations

The following University Regulation covers Professional Placements including the award of the DPS together with the following code of practice.