A placement year is a great opportunity to develop your skills, gain an understanding of an industry you’d like to work in, build your professional network, and graduate with highly valuable experience that’ll make you stand out from the crowd.

Our award-winning Employer Engagement Team work closely with hundreds of companies around the world to provide you with exciting opportunities. We work with big companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, Network Rail, Aldi, The Prince’s Trust, and Rolls-Royce, as well as SMEs (small-to-medium-sized enterprises). For those of you interested in a study placement, we have partner universities all over the globe. 

How you spend your placement is up to you – there are lots of options which we’ve outlined below. 

Don’t forget, we have a team of friendly Placement Coordinators who are here to support you with your search. They can explore your options with you.  

Want to know what is required for an opportunity to qualify as a placement? Take a look at this handy guide!

A whole year

You can complete between 30-48 weeks with one organisation, either in the UK or abroad. You must work a minimum of 16 hours per week.

Study Abroad

You can study abroad with one of our partner universities. We've put together a really useful guide to help you to explore your options for studying abroad. 

Alix Twiggs did a Study Abroad placement in Valencia, Spain. We interviewed her for our From Campus to Careers podcast, and you can hear all about her experience below.
 

Set up a business

Enterprise placements enable you to set up and/or run a business for your placement year. Enterprise Placements are managed jointly by the Aston Enterprise and Careers and Placements team. If eligible, you may also be able to receive support via the BSEEN programme during your placement year. Interested?

Applications for 2023/2024 enterprise placements are now open. Find out more.


Flexible options

Undertaking a placement in 2023/2024 will mean you have to complete between 30 and 48 weeks of placement experience. This can be made up of one or more of the flexible combinations below:

  • A whole year (up to 48 weeks) with one organisation.
  • A combination of shorter placements with a minimum duration of five weeks, culminating between 30 and 48 weeks 
  • A semester or more of Study Abroad.
  • Remote placements (also known as virtual or work-from-home placements)
  • Enterprise placements (to be approved by BSEEN)

For any of the flexible placement options below, you must work at least 16 hours per week for 5 weeks to meet the minimum requirements for it to be considered part of your placement year experience.

Options

 

Part-time Job

You can take a part-time role. However, you must provide proof your employer is happy to accommodate this first before it can be approved.

Join the family business

You could take on projects with the family business, as long as they would develop your skills. The business must have public liability insurance to be approved. Please speak to your Placement Coordinator about this option.

Entry-level jobs

Entry-level jobs could be a good option for you to gain valuable work experience.
VolunteeringGet some work experience and have a positive impact on your community!

Your placement could be:

  • Site or office-based
  • Remote (when you work from home)
  • Hybrid (when you do a mix of workplace and home working)

Please note: all placements are subject to meeting placement standards and the placement team's approval.