Year in Industry (twelve month) placements

Our BSc Business Management Year in Industry programme is fast becoming our largest undergraduate programme, proving extremely popular with students and employers.

Students spend their first two years studying at the Business School, then undertake a full-time paid 33 week (minimum) placement in industry and return to the University to complete their degree in the fourth year.

The benefits...

At the University of Birmingham we encourage our Business students to use their degree to develop both their academic and employability skills.  Employing a placement student can bring many benefits to your organisation including: 

  • An annual additional resource: competent, talented - quick and eager to learn
  • An extended recruitment process: you get to know the students, they get to know you

The majority of our Placement Students are offered employment with their placement provider at the end of their degree.

How do industrial placements work? 

All Business students have the opportunity to undertake a year-long placement in between their second and final year of study. To take part students must secure themselves a placement in a business-related setting with an external employer, lasting at least 33 consecutive weeks. Placements tend to start in July and finish some time during the summer period of the following year.

Students cannot start their placement until they have received their second year exam results towards the end of June.  If you are unclear whether any placement opportunities you have would qualify as a business-related placement please contact Ruth Meredith (r.h.meredith@bham.ac.uk) for an informal discussion. 

How and when to advertise your placement opportunities 

How?

At the University of Birmingham we play an active role in promoting year placement vacancies to our students. If you would like to advertise an opportunity with us we can:

  • Explore emailing/advertising your vacancy to particular groups of students (we have an internal vacancy board just for those undergraduates registered on the Business Management with a Year in Industry programme).
  • Create opportunities for you to get involved in careers presentations, events and skills workshops, both in the Business School and the wider university, to publicise your placement and any other opportunities. We run an annual Networking Evening for our Business Management with a Year in Industry students in November. 
  • Enter the vacancy on the central Careers Network on-line database; this is available to all students and is free of charge to employers.
  • Involve you in the Careers Network’s various careers fairs e.g. the Autumn Careers Fair, the Business, Finance and Consultancy Fair in October/November and the Internships and Work Experience Fair in January/February.

To submit a vacancy or to explore any of the above options please contact: Ruth Meredith, r.h.meredith@bham.ac.uk

Contact Ruth on LinkedIn

When?

Some employers start advertising placement opportunities early in the autumn term. In particular, larger companies with formal graduate schemes tend to advertise earlier so they have the opportunity to attract applications from the widest group of students, and from those of the highest calibre. 

Other organisations will start advertising in the spring term (January onwards); however we will receive and advertise placement vacancies until the end of the summer holidays (the end of September). 

On the whole we encourage employers to advertise as soon as possible, mainly to ensure you have the necessary time to interview before the examination period begins and students are focusing on revision. 

Ideally we recommend that you plan to finish your recruitment by the end of April. However if this is not possible we will advertise later as there will be students who have not secured a placement, and/or students who have decided to opt for a placement later in the year and have started the recruitment process later.  

What do I need to do to be a placement employer? 

If you employ a placement student from our Business School we ask you to agree to some basic standards and processes. As a placement provider you would be required to provide: 

  • A graduate-level, full-time, commercial placement starting no earlier than the end of June 2023, lasting at least 33 consecutive weeks, and ideally totalling no more than 45 hours per week 
  • A full contract of employment and a job description
  • Opportunities for learning and development 
  • Line management/supervision (and therefore someone we can contact within the organisation) 
  • Employers’ and Public Liability insurance, ensuring that this covers the student
  • A copy of your Health and Safety policy, and an induction/training for the student  

On average, placement students receive a salary of around £17,000 - 23,000 although this will vary depending on sector and location. We would expect that they are paid at least the National Minimum Wage for their age-group and do not advertise any unpaid roles .

What university work do students need to do whilst on placement? 

During their placement year Business School students must complete some assignments for the university. These are to be completed outside of their employment hours with you. However where a placement student’s academic work may benefit from some business insights we would welcome any support or exposure you can provide.

Contact us

Placements Team - bbs-careers-ug@contacts.bham.ac.uk