Work experience and placements

We will provide you with all the support you need to secure work experience, internships and volunteer placements. You'll develop personal and professional skills, valued by employers, whilst demonstrating your commitment to your chosen career path, and build a valuable network of contacts. 

Financial support

Our work experience bursary schemes enable undergraduate students to undertake opportunities that they might not otherwise be able to afford. Bursaries are awarded following a competitive applications process in which successful candidates are selected by a panel of experts, on their application form and interview performance. We also target some funding for specific priority groups, ensuring everyone has equal access to good quality work experience.

Real projects. Big Impact.

Students can also take part in consultancy-style challenges that bring real business problems into the curriculum. These immersive experiences give students the opportunity to work in teams on live industry briefs, developing practical skills whilst collaborating directly with employers.

Opportunities include the:

• The Impact Challenge (IC), designed for undergraduate students is a week-long work experience opportunity, designed to help you apply your skills to real employer challenges.
• The Birmingham MBA Consultancy Challenge, a week long intensive experience where postgraduate students from the Birmingham Business School tackle high-stakes business scenarios alongside consultants from Deloitte.
• The Masters Consultancy Challenge, where students will work in interdisciplinary teams to sole real organisational challenges for Turner & Townsend.
• The Masters Campus-Based Team Internship, where students in the Engineering and Physical Sciences collaborate with Severn Trent Water to tackle a genuine sector-based challenge, and collaborate in a dynamic, interdisciplinary team to craft solutions.

These challenges allow students to build key skills such as teamwork, commercial awareness, problem-solving, and pitching helping you to strengthen your career prospects.

Volunteering

There are also multiple volunteering opportunities available for students at Birmingham. 

• The Guild of Students offer different volunteering opportunities that students can participate in on a regular or one-off basis. You could support a local voluntary organisation or international charity such as Oxfam or the British Red Cross, or even set up and run your own project.
• The International Volunteering Society (Intervol) also sends students every year to projects across the globe. These include promoting sexual health awareness, nutrition and maternity care in developing countries; animal rescue and conservation in Ecuador and other long-term initiatives.

Guild volunteers have an induction and receive advice and support before and during the period of volunteering. Specialised training including Child Protection and First Aid, and free Disclosure and Barring Service checks (a requirement of UK law) are also provided to those volunteering with a Guild project. Volunteering undertaken through the Guild of Students is also recognised as part of the Birmingham Award.