placement year at home (UK) vs abroad?

so I'm a biomed student going into my second year now and I will be looking for and applying to placements in a couple months, specifically I would be looking for lab based ones. I had never thought of doing a placement abroad seriously before but I'm considering it now. I'm thinking of applying to both but I wanted to know what the pros/cons of going abroad would be. I have been told by some people that staying in the UK is better because it is more likely to lead to a job after graduating ( though my course is 5 years instead of 4 so I don't know if this applies). but I see people on the news and social media saying to "get out of the UK while you can" when I comes to jobs and working now? I'm also unsure how it would work with the language barrier, like if I was doing a placement in Madrid for example would I have to know/learn Spanish? any experiences or advice would be helpful thanks :smile:

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Lancaster Student Ambassador

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Hi!

I did my placement in the UK so don't have any direct experience with placements abroad, however, if you are applying for a placement abroad you will need to be mindful of visas which can take a while to sort out! Similarly, lots of the placements I looked at were only open to UK residents - I'm not sure if this is the same abroad but it might be worth checking the requirements when applying to placements abroad.

Hope this helps,
- Florence (Lancaster University student ambassador)

Original post by Spelunker

so I'm a biomed student going into my second year now and I will be looking for and applying to placements in a couple months, specifically I would be looking for lab based ones. I had never thought of doing a placement abroad seriously before but I'm considering it now. I'm thinking of applying to both but I wanted to know what the pros/cons of going abroad would be. I have been told by some people that staying in the UK is better because it is more likely to lead to a job after graduating ( though my course is 5 years instead of 4 so I don't know if this applies). but I see people on the news and social media saying to "get out of the UK while you can" when I comes to jobs and working now? I'm also unsure how it would work with the language barrier, like if I was doing a placement in Madrid for example would I have to know/learn Spanish? any experiences or advice would be helpful thanks :smile:

The UK, for the reasons you say. Even if a placement doesn't lead directly to a job wit the same company, it's value lies in a subsequent company understanding the value of the placement. A UK company is far less likely to understand and value the context of overseas work than it is a role in the UK.

Almost certainly for a technical placement, you'd need the relevant language skill.

Reply 4

gw1086

1

Original post by Spelunker

so I'm a biomed student going into my second year now and I will be looking for and applying to placements in a couple months, specifically I would be looking for lab based ones. I had never thought of doing a placement abroad seriously before but I'm considering it now. I'm thinking of applying to both but I wanted to know what the pros/cons of going abroad would be. I have been told by some people that staying in the UK is better because it is more likely to lead to a job after graduating ( though my course is 5 years instead of 4 so I don't know if this applies). but I see people on the news and social media saying to "get out of the UK while you can" when I comes to jobs and working now? I'm also unsure how it would work with the language barrier, like if I was doing a placement in Madrid for example would I have to know/learn Spanish? any experiences or advice would be helpful thanks :smile:

Hey, i'm in exactly the same position as you, i'm going into my second year of biomed thinking of doing a placement year abroad. While doing your placement in the UK can help with getting a job secured for after you graduate, the experience of going abroad will help your application stand out for other job applications. As well as this, if you find a company which is international and has worldwide sites, then i'm sure they could offer you a job at a sister branch in the UK for example, so don't let that stop you :smile:

placement year at home (UK) vs abroad?

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