Placement Year UK: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters for Students

When you hear placement year UK, a structured period of paid work experience integrated into a university degree. Also known as a sandwich year, it’s when students spend a full year working in a role related to their course before finishing their final year of study. This isn’t just an internship—it’s a full-time, paid job that counts toward your degree. Over 80% of UK universities now offer placement years, and students who do them are far more likely to land a job before graduation.

A work placement student, a university student undertaking a year-long professional role as part of their degree program doesn’t just get a line on their CV. They learn how offices really run, how projects get approved, how deadlines are managed, and how to talk to clients or managers. Many placements pay between £18,000 and £28,000 a year, which helps cover rent, tuition, and living costs. Some students even get job offers before they even finish their degree. It’s not magic—it’s strategy. Companies use placement years to test future hires. If you show up, learn fast, and contribute, they’ll want to keep you.

The graduate employability, the likelihood of a university graduate securing meaningful employment after completing their degree gap between students who took a placement and those who didn’t is huge. A 2023 survey by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit found that 72% of students who completed a placement year received a job offer from their placement employer. That’s more than double the rate of those who didn’t. It’s not about having the best grades—it’s about having real experience. Employers don’t just want someone who passed exams. They want someone who’s solved real problems, worked in teams, and handled real pressure.

And it’s not just about the job at the end. A placement year helps you figure out what you actually like—or don’t like—about your field. Maybe you thought you wanted to be a marketing executive, but after six months in a campaign team, you realize you hate meetings and love data. That’s valuable insight. You can switch modules, focus your final year differently, or even change your career path entirely—without wasting a whole degree.

You’ll find that the posts below cover everything you need to make a placement year work for you: how to apply, how to negotiate pay, what to do if your placement falls through, how to balance work and study, and how to turn a six-month gig into a full-time offer. You’ll also see how students in engineering, business, design, and even psychology used their placements to build careers. No fluff. No theory. Just what actually happens on the ground.