Civil and Infrastructure Engineering BEng(Hons): Work placement year

Why take a placement?

Work placements:

• provide work experience that is relevant to your course and future career;
• improve your chances of graduating with a higher grade degree;
• enhance your CV;
• lead to a graduate job;
• enable you to earn a year's salary whilst studying (the vast majority of placements are paid); and
• help you to select your final-year project.

"To be successful, tomorrow's leaders will need to be far more rounded individuals than ever before. They will collaborate in pursuit of shared goals. They will guide, challenge and support...They will have an appetite for change and a hunger for continuous improvement, and they will have an ethos of learning and development..."
Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive, Sky 2010

Nearly all Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing honours students can apply to do a one-year industrial placement between the second and third years of their degree.

"Doing a placement year effectively gives you one foot in the door of a future job and to stand out from the crowd... as well as enhancing my CV... and future interviews. It's a great motivator to be successful in my studies as it only serves to open even more doors and gain more skills."
Placement student at Jagex Games Studios Ltd

• 81% placement students and 34% non-placement students got a first or 2.1 (Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, 2008).
• 100% of placement students during 2008 recommend doing a placement (Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, 2008).
• Many employers offer a graduate job to their successful placement students.

There is a lot of support available for students looking to secure a placement (eg a jobs board with placement vacancies, help with writing CVs, mock interviews). Getting a placement and passing the placement year are ultimately the student's responsibility.

Read about Jake Berry's experiences during his placement as IT Intern for Global Mobile and Personal Telecoms at General Electric.

For further information please contact the Placements Team by telephone 020 8417 2969/2690 or email secplace@kingston.ac.uk.

Placements can be with large multinational companies, international companies, local companies and small start ups; offering a diverse range of posts. Here are some examples of employers and roles: