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The many rewarding placement partnerships we enjoy with local employers add so much to the rich student experience at Ulster University.

At Ulster University, we are proud of the impact our students have made in supporting all sectors of our economy deal with the unprecedented nature of COVID-19.

During this time, our students have supported organisations to increase capacity across many functional areas including research and development, digital technology, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, artificial intelligence, data analytics, creative arts and many more.

Despite the disruption of COVID-19, if placements remain integral to your plan for the year ahead, we are on hand to support you in gaining access to the wealth of student talent available to support your organisation in these extraordinary times.

Need a COVID-19 Business Recovery Plan?

We can help your business to secure time, talent, and skills with our established placement programme and we have introduced new levels of flexibility which we hope will better support your business needs.

How it works

What constitutes a placement?

A placement is a period of supervised, professional work experience, assessed as part of a student's course.

Students undertake placements that allow them to apply what they have learnt at university practically in the workplace. Since COVID-19, the workplace for our placement students has evolved to include a remote working environment such as a student’s home, a virtual internship, or a digital project(s) that you can outsource to a student or a group of students. Students can still undertake placements in the workplace, where health and safety measures are in place to protect employees, such as social distancing.

Duration

Our placements can last from a minimum 24 weeks (or part-time equivalent), up to a year in duration. Placements can be flexible to suit the needs of the business but should have commenced by the latest January 2021 to enable students to meet the learning objectives of the placement award (Diploma in Professional Practice).

You can start a placement student as early as June 2020 and we are encouraging students to confirm their offers of placement at the latest the end of November 2020.

If placements of a shorter duration would be valuable to your business, we can still advertise these as students have the opportunity to undertake a series of shorter placements to make up the 24-week requirement.

Students will be sourcing their placements independently and through opportunities advertised on our placements portal.

Benefits for your business

  • Cost-effective additional resources to support with the impact of COVID-19
  • Student talent with specific knowledge and skills relevant to your business
  • Secure new expertise and a fresh perspective to assist on a specific project
  • Enhance your future recruitment by raising your profile among the next generation of graduates.

We have compiled a series of Placement Q&A that might help answer some of the queries you have.

If you would like to speak to someone regarding placement recruitment, please email: placements@ulster.ac.uk and a member of the team will be delighted to call you to discuss how we can help.