Kingston University London

You have the opportunity to complete a professional work placement as part of this degree, meaning the course takes four years instead of three. You undertake the placement in your third year.  

A placement year bears no resemblance to the kind of work experience you might have done at school. For a start, it lasts for about a year, and it certainly won’t revolve around photocopying and tea making! 

You’ll be doing a proper job with a proper company – and earning a proper salary! It doesn’t even necessarily have to be in the Kingston area. Many of our students work in or around central London, and some have even been sent to represent their companies at conferences around the world.

Why take a placement year?
The benefits of taking a placement year include:

• enabling you to add work experience to your CV. This will give you an edge on the competition when you look for a job and help you make better informed career choices;
• assisting your final year academic studies. Research indicates that somebody who has done a placement completes better project work and gets better results on average in their final year;
• developing your professional skills and gaining invaluable practical experience in your chosen field;
• giving you an understanding of the role of IT in the real world away from the lecture theatre;
• building your self-confidence and self-esteem; and
• providing you with a salary, so potentially reducing debt in the middle of your degree.

Each year a number of students receive some form of permanent job offer from their placement employer. 

How will Kingston help?
The Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics has a dedicated placement office, which has a wealth of industrial contacts and exists solely to help you get the best possible placement position. Office staff provide all the support you need to secure the right placement for you. They will:

• help you to produce a professional CV;
• give you interview preparation; and
• provide advice and guidance throughout the placement. 

We also run an annual placements fair to help introduce you to potential employers.  You can view images and more information about the 2007 event.

The Quality Assurance Agency recognised this service to be of great merit when it reviewed the University.  The result is that:

• employers come to Kingston to recruit for placement posts;
• Kingston graduates enjoy a good reputation; and
• the University is often contacted directly by employers with permanent graduate positions.

Where might I take my placement?
The placement office has built up strong relationships with a wide range of organisations, including those with specific placement and graduate schemes. Its contacts range from small and medium-size organisations to large global enterprises. 

Between 2004 and 2007 it helped to successfully place 280 students in 132 companies. Here’s a list of our top 10 placement employers (by number of students employed from 2004–2007): 

1. Air Products
2. Sun Microsystems
3. Metropolitan Police (various departments)
4. Accenture Technology Solutions
5. Modulo2 (companies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis and Bartle Bogle Hegarty)
6. Cadence
7. GSK (GlaxoSmithKline)
8. Lloyds TSB
9. AXA Investment Managers
10. CLS

Kingston University is popular with many IT employers because our students have such a good reputation for their practical skills, initiative and enthusiasm.

What our students say
Find out more on how Kingston students got on in their placements in the following case studies:

• Cognos and Kingston University
• Starcom – and a star in the making?

What placement employers say

"We've found that candidates who have completed a placement tend to perform better in graduate interviews. They have a year's commercial experience; possibly some technical training; and a clearer understanding of what is involved on a client project.”
Sukaina Dharas, graduate recruitment at Accenture Technology Solutions

“Taking on placement students allows us to find potential employees for permanent positions. The benefit for the student is exposure to a real working environment, which makes them more experienced and employable after their degree.”
Amy Osman,  network analyst at Air Products

“Kingston University students have a great aptitude for adapting to the working environment. When a position became vacant within the team, we immediately contacted the placement student we had last year. He is now an established part of our little world here at BBH.”
Andy Roberts, site manager at Bartle Bogle Hegarty Ltd (Advertising)

Name: Bhavit Shah

Course: BSc(Hons) Software Engineering

Placement company: Merrill Lynch

"I spent my sandwich placement at Merrill Lynch, working as an analyst developer for 15 months. I delivered a web-based application for the private banking sector of the firm, which automated several processes.

"I'm still in touch with my colleagues and it’s great to know that the application I developed is still being used in more than 16 offices across Europe and the Middle East. I achieved a prestigious 'Spotlight Award' for my contribution to the company.

"The placement office at Kingston provided outstanding support when I was preparing for the placement. I still remember knocking on the office door several times a day, either to get my CV checked or to get updates on my job applications!

"Mock interviews also helped me to develop my interview skills. The staff's relentless efforts meant that I secured job offers from companies such as Microsoft as well as Merrill Lynch.

"The placement completely changed my views and learning style. Once I returned to Kingston for my final year, I started thinking about the practical implementation of each subject. My final year project was done for Merrill Lynch, which provided excellent project management skills."

Read more about what Bhavit is doing now in the After you graduate section and his experiences at Kingston in the What our students say section (where you can also read about fellow student Jeyaram Deivachandran's sandwich placement).