An internship or placement is a great way to find out about an organisation and whether you'd like to work there (or not!) when you graduate. Many of the major graduate recruiters offer summer internships and placements to undergraduates. Increasingly, employers are using their penultimate year summer internships as part of their graduate recruitment programmes, i.e. they offer graduate jobs to students who successfully complete an internship or placement.
What is an internship?
Internships are short periods of professional experience. During an internship you'll be doing similar work to a normal employee of the organisation. They give you a taste of what graduate work is like and can help you make industry contacts.
Summer Internships are a useful way for you to develop and enhance your skills during the vacation periods. They normally can last between two – twelve weeks and are generally paid. Most internship opportunities advertised by large graduate recruiters are aimed at penultimate (pre-final) year students. However, many smaller businesses offer internship opportunities and do not stipulate a year of study.
Some companies will also offer Easter or Christmas opportunities (often called spring internships or insight days). These are often targeted at first and second year students, however, there will be a limited number of these opportunities available.
There are some unpaid opportunities but these should be very short and not last more than four weeks.
What is a placement?
A placement may form part of your course and it could be anything from a few weeks to a year. If you're on a course with an accredited placement requirement, your academic or placement adviser will provide you with information about the requirements for your placement and possibly advise you of opportunities posted directly by employers to your academic department.
Many Strathclyde courses don’t include an industrial placement year as part of the course. However, it is possible to interrupt your studies for one year, with support from your academic department, to complete a year long work placement.