Work Placements
If you choose to study as an undergraduate at Kingston Business School, you will be given the opportunity of taking a four year degree, with your third year out on placement or working and studying abroad. The benefits of a year’s placement are immense. You will receive continuous support from the university during your year out and plenty of help and guidance in finding a placement that is right for you, including a mentor to help you through the application process. You will graduate with an additional diploma reflecting your placement experience.
New: The UG Diploma in Professional Practice – more recognition of your work
Students who complete a full year placement and some related work-based coursework may be eligible to gain an additional qualification ‘Diploma in Professional Practice’. This is an extra award in addition to the Bachelor degree and will give students more evidence of their many accomplishments whilst on Placement.
The benefits of a work placement
The benefits of doing a work placement are immense:
It increases your chance of employment; 70 per cent of students who do a placement are offered a job on graduating and many employers will only recruit on to their graduate programmes students who have completed a work placement.- It improves your academic performance: students who do placements are more likely to achieve a first class or 2:1 degree (click on the graph for more details).
- You will develop work and personal skills and broaden your knowledge of business: you will not be spending a year making the tea! Many of our students undertake new projects for the companies they are placed with and if they work at smaller companies are given a lot of responsibility. Please watch the video below to find out more about what our students do on placement.
- It gives you the chance to put the theory you’ve learned in class into practice without making a long term commitment.
- You are paid for your efforts: the average placement salary is £15k. So you will be financially better off at the end of your placement than before it.
- You can receive Erasmus funding if you choose to study and work abroad.
- You will graduate with an additional diploma reflecting your placement experience.
What our students say about work placements
Download Work Placements Video Transcript (PDF)
Who you could be working for
Through the business services we provide at Kingston Business School and the many years we have been organising work placements; we have good contacts with some of the biggest names in business and many smaller specialist companies. Students from Kingston Business School are regularly placed with companies such as: IBM, Microsoft, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, JVC, BskyB, Toyota, General Motors, Disney, Whirlpool, Marks and Spencer, Young and Co’s Brewery, Majestic Wine Warehouses, Lloyds Banking Group, GE Money, Axa, Experian, LCH. Clearnet, Attenda, Amadeus, James Worley and Sons, ISS, Centrica
How we help you
You will not be negotiating the minefield of securing a placement alone: we will be with you every step of the way. We provide guidance and advice for application forms, competency and psychometric tests, assessment centres and interviews, including conducting mock interviews.
Our dedicated placement team will let you know of the latest placement opportunities and check your CVs and cover letters. We can help you find a placement through our network of contacts with employers or through our workshops, placement fairs, and networking and speed interviewing events.
We provide peer mentors to guide you through the application process and we give you continuous support during your year out.
Contact us
If you have any queries about how placements work, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Placement Office, Room 311, Business School, Kingston Hill
Telephone: 020 8417 5266
Email: BSPlacements@kingston.ac.uk
