Placement Year or Masters

Placement year. I just had my placement year and learnt loads from it that uni just simply cant teach. Also youre more aware of the industry and feel better prepared when actually looking for a job. If your like most of the students including me your get an offer to stay full time after you graduate.

My advice for looking for a placement is to look for one yourself, ask if there is anything available even if nothing is posted. A lot of students fall into the trap of applying to the listings the uni placement office has provided. Problem is everyone else is chasing the same placement!

Completing your placement will show potential employers that your not totally useless at doing the job.

Is the placement year worth the extra money?

It cost me around £800 tuition fees that year. Its a rip off considering I didnt have any lectures that year and only had coursework to submit plus 2 tutor visits but yes it is worth it because of the experiance you get. Plus most students got paid for it and got a full time offer at the end of it including me so there is a real benefit. People coming out with just a degree really do lack experiance so having a placement year helps you get employment and more importantly it allows you to reflect on the placement and identify what you did and didnt like about the job, so you can make a good decision when looking for full time employment.

When I get my degree I get "with proffessional development" at the end if it makes any difference lol. The important thing is you see a real difference in quality of work when comparing the students that did a placement and those that didnt, its striking at times because my degree is very much orientated around web design/development, 3D, animation etc so the difference most of the time is clear because the work is most of the time visual. It may not be as obvious if you did a some sort of business placement but the skills you learnt would still be there.

So if your degree allows you to do a placement year, take it! You come back to uni a lot more confident because you know what the industry is like and I feel that Id be more confident when looking for a job as I'd know what they would expect of me.

The courses w/ placements years are 4 years, does this mean I will pay 4x 9k ?

Yes.

But when you graduate then get yourself into a £27,000 P/A job think how long it's going to take you to pay back, in yearly installments over 10 years?

What's that about £3,600 per year, £300 per month which is nothing.

Don't worry about things.

It will be 4 years yes but the placement year should cost you considerably less than a normal year because they arent teaching you anything. The cost will vary by uni so contact them to find out how much the placement year will cost. Dont bother with a placement if they are going to charge you 9k when your not even at the uni for a year.

For me my tuition fees are £3,250 for a normal year and my placement year cost £800. So a wild guess for you is £9k for normal years and £2250 for the placement year.

Thanks, I'll give 'em all a call tomorrow.
Also, do the students who picked a placement year go to the same lectures as the students that didn't? you all learn the same stuff right?

Yes you learn the same modules after your placement year. At my uni they call it level 1,2 and 3 and after level 2 you can do a placement year. Once you finish the placement year you go to level 3. People who didnt do one go straight to level 3 but dont have the experiance and skillset under them that would help them out for the final year project.

Do you end up doing Level 3 with the Students who started the programme a year later than you?

Yes so there is a bit of a mix at level 3 but this was expected anyway since my level 3 modules are open to people doing other degrees. About 75% of the students went on placement so I didnt return to a bunch of students I didnt know.

It will be 4 years yes but the placement year should cost you considerably less than a normal year because they arent teaching you anything. The cost will vary by uni so contact them to find out how much the placement year will cost. Dont bother with a placement if they are going to charge you 9k when your not even at the uni for a year.

For me my tuition fees are £3,250 for a normal year and my placement year cost £800. So a wild guess for you is £9k for normal years and £2250 for the placement year.

Can placement years be abroad i.e USA?

How is it funded, are you paid a salary, or do you continue to receive student loans etc. What happens to funding if you decide to go abroad for the placement year?