Online Resources
The Careers Service is a good starting point for finding out about vacation and term-time employment and some year-long placements. Check out Jobs Direct, our online vacancy system.
AIESEC - (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales) is the world's largest not-for-profit student-managed youth development organisation. Its core activity is to organise international work placements from 2-18 months in 83 countries in the fields of Management, Marketing, Finance, Engineering, IT and also Development projects.
BUNAC - arranges visas and assists you to find summer work mainly in the USA and Canada; includes summer camps and a lot more. Details from the Careers Service and watch out for presentations on campus from the Autumn term
Employ Ability - works in partnership with major employers to provide work experience internships and also permanent graduate posts for students and graduates with disabilities.
Erasmus - The European Union’s Erasmus programme enables higher education students to study or do a work placement for typically three to 12 months in one of 32 other European countries as part of a degree course.
Bright Green Placements - Bright Green Placements runs Scotland-wide, offering exciting opportunities to students and recent Graduates with a wide range of paid industry work placements across the country.
IAESTE – an international project-based technical summer work programme for penultimate year students of engineering, science, agriculture, architecture and related fields. Applications must be made in the Autumn term
iHipo - is a combination of social network and jobsite. Offers students hundreds of international job and internship opportunities with prestigious employers.
Intern Town - Site providing a free-of-charge, user-friendly space for future interns from all over the world to find challenging positions for up to 12 months at exciting companies worldwide.
JET - The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme is an official Japanese Government scheme to improve foreign language teaching in schools and to promote international understanding
Projects Abroad - Projects Abroad is the leading global organiser of overseas volunteer work placements. Volunteer projects for Gap Years, Career Breaks, Electives and Summer Placements.
Prospects - this site includes a database of all kinds of work experience placements, from full sandwich years to vacation work and work shadowing.
Rate My Placement - allows you to view ratings of placements made by students who have had placements in particular organisations. You can also add your own ratings and search for current placements.
responsibletravel.com - lists a huge range of Gap year travel ideas & options from leading responsible operators. Make the most of your Gap year by supporting local people & the environment as well as developing yourself.
STEP - Step Classic is the work experience programme for undergraduates studying full-time for a degree at a UK University and is open to students of any course or discipline.
Target Jobs - Covers placements, internships, summer jobs and voluntary work.
The Year in Industry - provide paid placements for students in their gap year, before or during their degree course. They have placements for students interested in all areas of engineering, science, IT, e-commerce, business, marketing, finance and logistics.
Tuinternship - Internship opportunities across Europe for university students and new graduates
Volunteering
Volunteering is not about ‘charity and giving’ but about working together for mutual benefit. Volunteering strengthens the link between higher education and work promoting active citizenship and gaining new skills through team development.
In other words, volunteering is more than just giving few hours of your time – it is about learning new skills from which you and the organisations will both benefit [more...]
Did You Know?
A survey by the national volunteering charity, TimeBank, of 2000 of the UK's leading businesses found that:
- 73% of employers would employ candidates with volunteering experience over one who doesn't.
- 58% of employers say that voluntary work experience can actually be more valuable than experience gained in paid employment
- 94% of employers believe that volunteering can add to skills.
- 94% of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted.
Speculative applications
Most students will secure work experience through sending a speculative CV and Cover Letter to companies that they are interested in working for.
Use the My Subject pages to access information about about companies that you can target.
You also need to be aware that many large employers use summer work experience as an entry route into graduate jobs. Penultimate year students who do well during the summer are often considered for graduate jobs the following year.