Six reasons to do a placement year.

​Doing a placement year/industrial placement/sandwich degree as part of your University course can be a great way of developing your CV and skillset, and gives you the best chance of securing a great graduate job.

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There are many benefits for completing a placement year, but here are six reasons:

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1. It looks great on your CV!

Employers always love to see graduates that have gone out into the real world and gained some great, relevant work experience.

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2. Helps develop your soft skills

Academia and industry work very differently and a placement year gives you a great opportunity to experience this and develop your soft skills with real life examples (communication, team working and commercial acumen for example).

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3. Does the company/industry match your ambition and skill set?

There are many different industries that you can choose to work in, that have different working environments/cultures/values, and a placement year will give you the opportunity to explore whether that environment is right for you.

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4. Putting theory into practice

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to put the skills you’ve learnt as part of your course into practice? Well a year in industry gives you the opportunity to do that! Using these skills in the real world will help enhance your skillset, and will also help you understand why they’re important, and in turn should make your course, and the theory within it, a lot easier to understand.

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5. A chance to tackle your student overdraft

As we know, University life can be an expensive one, so one of the benefits of doing a placement year is the opportunity to tackle your overdraft and earn some money!

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6. Left it too late to do a placement year? No problem!

Away from a sandwich course or placement year, it is also great to consider a summer internship in an industry that you want to work in, or are considering working in. For instance, if you are interested in breaking into the digital marketing sector, why not try and get an internship at a digital agency – who knows, they might offer you a role for once you’ve finished your course!

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If you are keen to discuss your graduate job search in more detail, then get in touch!