Placements

We define a placement as work experience that forms a recognised part of an academic degree course, relevant to the student's discipline, where the student will often undertake an assignment, progress reports or other learning activities in addition to the tasks they perform for you as part of their role. For a list of departments offering placement opportunities visit here.

With most work experience opportunities, applicants arrange their life to fit around your start date and preferred period of commitment. A placement student’s availability is already limited by the placement’s purpose and duration within their course, so they may only be able to apply for roles that fit these criteria.

Where students secure a work placement with the intention that it form a credit-bearing part of their degree course, they then share that finalised opportunity with their academic department for approval, but students are accountable for their own job search and offer management.

Access Hours and duration

The “right” placement for a particular student’s course varies across the University from part or full-time, ranging from 4 weeks during term time to 9-12 months starting June-September. If you can be flexible regarding start date and duration (within reason given the business need driving your vacancy advert), this will broaden the pool of eligible applicants.

Status

For the most part, a student would be focused on how being a high-potential worker in a role, organisation, or sector links back to their studies, and in developing skills for the workplace.

Student visa holders in the UK are able to undertake work placements provided that it is an assessed part of the course and is not more than 50% of the total length of the course, the student remains registered with the University during the placement.

Relationships

Placements are usually a three-way relationship between an individual, their University and the employer (placement provider), often with associated learning activities.

In practical terms, this means:

The placement's format might be defined by the University.
You will need to recruit and select students using the same methods and standards that apply to regular recruitment, to fulfil your legal responsibilities.
You will need to sign a tripartite agreement. This is a three-way agreement between the organisation, the student and the university that sets out the expectations for the placement, and whether an NDA is required.
The student may arrive with a personal development or learning plan that you need to support.
You may need to accommodate one or more visits from the student’s personal tutor, either at their place of work, or virtually, over the course of the placement.
You may need to update the University with the student’s progress.
The University may be able to offer you some support or guidance if there are any issues with the student.

Cost

You will need to allow time for scoping out the potential experience, possibly in collaboration with a University department or the student themselves, uploading to the myAdvantage jobs portal (see advertising code of practice below), recruitment, induction/training and ongoing management/supervision of the student. You may also need to consider any learning requirements or meetings with University staff that might be requested. You will need to ensure that they have appropriate access to equipment (e.g. computer) and a workstation.

The University of Warwick’s Vacancy Advertising Code of PracticeLink opens in a new window does not support unpaid work (excludes work shadowing where students are observing only), in line with the National Minimum Wage legislation and sector benchmarking. There is a policy exception however, where the opportunity is limited to applicants from a named Warwick course that incorporates a placement, for the purpose of providing that placement.

Please be aware: Some students will not be in a position to undertake an unpaid opportunity and individual university departments may have additional restrictions in place, which may result in this opportunity not being approved at departmental level.

If you are looking to advertise on our myAdvantage jobs portal here, please incorporate the following information:

the vacancy type will need to be listed as "Work Experience" (and also "12 month Placements", if applicable
and the following text must be included in your advert:

"Work Placement only. Offers will only be made on the basis of undertaking a placement as a formal part of a degree course - no unpaid work will be made available outside of this. As such, it is only open to applicants who are actively seeking a placement as a part of their degree, from the departments listed at: warwick.ac.uk/careers/employers/internships/students/departments/.

Please note that individual university departments may have additional restrictions in place – check your home department’s specifications before making an application."

You would then be held by our Code to only accept applicants from these departments seeking a placement as part of their degree.

The following documents can support in understanding the placement process, roles and responsibilities and support in hosting a student.

Next: Recruiting

Student availability