Recruiting a Placement Student

What is Placement?

Placement provides students with a Work-Based Learning experience. Specifically, it

  • Is a continuous period of paid employment
  • Normally lasts for 48 weeks (excluding holidays)
  • Occurs in the third year of a student's course
  • Must be completed successfully

Work-Based Learning forms an integral part of almost all honours degree courses offered in the Faculty.

Benefits of Placement

For students, Placement provides an opportunity to:

  • Apply the knowledge and skills they have developed so far
  • Acquire additional skills and knowledge at both a technical and personal level
  • Gain an understanding of how their university course is preparing them for a future career
  • Improve their prospects of future employment

For employers, Placement provides an opportunity to:

  • Select a student with a range of suitable technical skills
  • Employ someone keen to create a good impression
  • Have an opportunity to assess the student's potential for future employment
  • Develop a relationship with the University that can assist future recruitment

Expectations

We expect employers to:

  • Appoint a Supervisor to oversee the student's work and assist in the assessment of the student's achievements
  • Provide the student with suitable health and safety orientation and training as required
  • Provide the student with a suitable programme of work
  • Help the student settle in. Where appropriate, this may be facilitated by an outgoing placement student

We expect students to:

  • Comply with all conditions of employment and University regulations
  • Behave in a professional manner at all times
  • Maintain regular contact with the Placement Tutor
  • Maintain a log book, produce reports as required, and complete any tasks required by the University

We will:

  • Appoint a Visiting Tutor for each student
  • Arrange for the progress of the student to be reviewed twice during the Placement
  • Respond to any issues that arise during the Placement
  • Assess the performance of each student with the help of their employer

Arranging Placements

Companies interested in offering a computing or multimedia placement should contact the Computing Placement Administrator (Paula McKinney, +44 28 9036 6966; pm.mckinney@ulster.ac.uk).

Companies interested in offering a placement in the area of Electrical or Mechanical Engineering should contact the Placement Coordinator (Ron Laird, +44 28 90366264; rj.laird@ulster.ac.uk).