Placements
Placements are a great way to get on-the-job experience within your subject area. These vary from 12-week projects such as SAMPID to full 12-month placements. Undertaking a placement can be beneficial to your subject area knowledge and employability after completion of your award.
Unitemps’ Placement Opportunities
Unitemps offers many placement opportunities for Staffordshire University students wishing to get real hands-on experience, as well as great connections for when they graduate. Read on to find out the benefits of seizing this opportunity!
What type of placement can I do?
There are many placements available to students at Staffordshire University. The main year of industry placement is the most well-known. With many other project based placements also offered.
A Year in Industry
A year in Industry is usually based within an organisation in your subject area. These are usually started after the end of your studies in your second year. It is usually up to you to find a placement at the start of your second year of university, However, academic staff usually post relevant opportunities they find within your courseâs teams group or blackboard area and are sure to assist you in finding one if necessary.
SAMPID
Staffordshire Advanced Manufacturing, Prototyping and Innovation Demonstrator is a scheme aimed to drive innovation in advanced manufacturing sectors across the region. The aim of the project is to support businesses to develop new to the market products or components utilising groundbreaking equipment. Funded by Staffordshire University and the European Regional Development Fund (2014-2020) these placements are offered on a paid basis lasting 12 weeks at 15 hours per week.
Throughout the placement, a dedicated academic will support one day per week.
This can be in any of the following areas:
- Aero-auto
- Energy
- Agri-tech
- Medical Technology
- Applied Materials
- Transport
- Food and Drink
Within the placement, you would have the opportunity to utilise Staffordshire Universities Advanced Manufacturing Equipment, such as; Metal 3D printers (Solvent washable), Sinter oven (for metal 3D printers), Educational Robot, Collaborative Robot, Inspection Camera, Spin coater and Probe station.
SDIPS
Staffordshire Digital Innovation Partnerships, this programme is aimed at collaborating with small to medium enterprises to enable digital innovation within their organisation. These projects last for 24 weeks and are focussed on three areas:
- Digital Innovation PartnershipsâFocused on technological transformation to support the development of new processes, services or products and their accompanying transformational change within their business.
- Business Intelligence PartnershipsâFocused on supporting businesses to unlock the power of the data they collect, utilising a range of business intelligence tools and techniques.
- Social Challenge Innovation PartnershipsâStaffordshire County council priorities that a business can pitch to develop prototype solutions to.
These projects are all full time for the duration of 6 months, with the support of an academic for half a day per week.
Why a Placement?
Instead of going into your third year of your degree, a student placement is an option to take a year out to work for an established industry relevant to your area of study. Whatâs the point of taking a year out when you could just finish that degree and get a job after?
Hereâs a few reasons a placement may be the right option for you:
- You will get real industry experience which will increase your employability and skills.
- It will also help you apply what you have learnt in theory, so you will have a fantastic, competitive edge when entering the job market (and increased subject area knowledge!).
- You will also figure out if the career youâre pursuing is really right for you and the different job roles within that sector that you may want to consider.
- You may even be able to find a salaried placement.
- And lastly, the obvious: you get great contacts! TopResume states that â60 percent of jobs are found through networking.â, so being able to reach out and build relationships will be vital to your job-search in the future.
- Many times, students have been offered guaranteed graduate roles whilst taking a placement (Wouldn’t you love to spend your third year at Uni knowing you have a job lined up, with a company you are already comfortable with straight afterwards?!).
Whatâs a Placement Like?
Different for every organization and sector, a placement will technically be a full-time role. You will get a chance to develop your knowledge and skills practically which you build your skill set; this will be a fantastic head start when entering your final year of your degree! You will also work alongside an experienced team too, which will be a great way to network and ask questions.
Some Stats to Think About
- According to ISE Development Survey, the importance of work experience is highlighted by the fact that 87% of respondents agreed that a student who had completed an internship had a more enhanced skill set – than those who did not.
- They also found that employers rehired an average of 43% of their placement students.
- It is estimated that the average salary of students who have completed sandwich placements is 8% higher than those that did not, six months after graduating.
Where does Unitemps Come In?
Register with us on www.Unitemps.com where you will regularly see placements being posted. So far, we have placed 15 students on a placement since 2021 and we are excited to give more students the opportunity to develop their skill set. We have 6 live placement opportunities in a variety of sectors.
Other ways to get a Placement with Staffordshire University
MyCareer (Online/Science Centre):
The Career Coaches are there for you all week to support your with tailoring a CV or cover letter, coaching you for your next placement with mock interviews and supporting you in building your portfolio. Placement opportunities are also advertised on MyCareer, so check regularly!
Contact them via online (MyCareer), going into a drop-in session at the Science Centre, or emailing them at careers@staffs.ac.uk.
Employability Hub (Microsoft Teams):
Students will be automatically enrolled onto this page, where there will be jobs and placement opportunities regularly updated on their files. All opportunities will relate to a specific degree area, so that all students have a good chance at securing employment.
Useful Resources:
- www.ratemyplacement.co.uk
- www.prospects.ac.uk
- https://www.studentjob.co.uk/placement
- Indeed
- TotalJobs
- Gradcracker
- unitemps.com
- mycareer.staffs.ac.uk
- Bright Network
- Google Jobs
- Reed
- TargetJobs
- SimplyHired
Register with Unitemps Today:
https://www.unitemps.com/Register/Candidate
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