Work experience is a great opportunity to explore your career options, find roles that suit you, and improve your prospects. Work experience benefits your career by allowing you to develop:
- employability skills
- commercial awareness
- occupational awareness
- personal and practical experience
- network opportunities
- opportunities to apply your academic knowledge
Academic Placements
Some universities offer summer research placements and will advertise these on their websites and possibly social media.
Industrial placements
As with academic placements industrial placements will be advertised on their websites and social media.
Summer placements
These placements can last between one and 12 weeks over the summer. They may be unpaid or offer reimbursements for some of your expenses. These kind of placements are usually advertised through membership bodies, such as us, or through university careers services. When applying for summer placements follow the same advice as when applying for jobs or submitting speculative enquiries.
Science at its heart is an expression of curiosity and creativity; undertaking a lab placement allows you to exercise these assets by using your previous learning to solve common lab problems, outside the set confines of undergraduate practicals.