Year in Industry

The Year in Industry allows you to work in a paid, full-time, graduate-level job for 9-12 months with a single employer in the UK or overseas. You must be paid at least minimum wage, with many students earning well above this during their placement year.

• Develop practical workplace and life skills, and gain valuable work experience.
• Decide what kind of job and career path you want to pursue when you graduate.
• Show employers that you are independent, capable, and confident of adapting to a working environment.
• Build links and networks with potential employers and possibly gain a job offer for when you graduate.

All LUBS undergraduate courses include the opportunity to apply for a Year in Industry. You do not need to decide until the start of your second year whether you would like to apply for a year in industry. If this option is taken, and if you meet academic progression requirements, your degree will be extended to a four-year programme with the third year spent on work placement.

It is up to you to apply independently to employers following their recruitment processes and timelines, but the University offers plenty of support including:

• An optional second-year module, From Study to Work, which provides students with the knowledge, skills and experience you need to obtain and prepare for work placements. Workshops by top graduate employers and the Module Leader, Sumayyah Qudah, will cover key stages in the recruitment process, including making applications, being successful at interviews and dealing with assessment centres.
• Placement Hunt Club, a regular employability session during term time led by Dr. Joanne Dickinson, the Business School’s Senior Employability and Placements Officer. Placement Hunt Club offers expert advice on where to find industrial placements and how to apply.
• The option to book a Work Placement (LUBS) appointment through MyCareer to speak to a member of our team, who can support you with job applications and interview preparation.

Our students have completed placements at organisations ranging from small and medium sized enterprises to major multinationals. Examples include:

Adobe | Amazon | Apple | Airbus | Bank of England | British Airways | Burberry | Deloitte | EY | First Direct | GSK | HM Treasury | Hilton | IBM | Jacobs Douwe Egberts | John Lewis | Johnson and Johnson | Lloyds Banking Group | L’Oreal | Microsoft | Morgan Stanley | NHS and NHS Digital | Nike | PwC | Rolls Royce | Samsung | Toyota | UBS | Unilever | Vodafone | Volkswagen

If you want to work overseas - you must have or be able to secure relevant rights and documents e.g. work visas and living permits to live and work in the related host country before travelling to or starting at work (beyond the UK) and we must also be able to authorise your placement via the Uni.

Students with UK study visas - checks and study visa renewal advice will be offered once we know if we can authorise your placement ahead – stakeholders need to complete pre-placement forms and processes first – we will help as far as we can.

Tuition fees are substantially reduced for work placement years. Visit the University of Leeds finance page for the latest information.

During your placement year you will be enrolled on a 120-credit module known as LUBS8001: Training in the Workplace, which will give you the chance to reflect and write about your work goals, values, and skills development over the course of the placement. You complete assignments at three points in the year, based on your completion of three self-assessment questionnaires and feedback from your manager and a workplace colleague. Your overall submission will be graded as fail, pass, pass with merit, or pass with distinction.

Yes, you will remain enrolled at the University of Leeds during your placement year and will be entitled to access all student services. Students will also be assigned a Placement Tutor who will stay in touch with you to ensure that everything is going well throughout the year.

Unfortunately not. However, our summer school programmes are a great way for students to have a short-term experience abroad either before or after their placement year.

Some students are offered the opportunity to return in a full-time role upon graduation, but this is dependent on your placement provider. Even if you do not get offered a permanent role, you will have automatically increased your chances of securing a graduate job by completing industry-level work experience.

We need to know about all work placement offers 6-8 weeks (minimum) before start dates at work.

There is a new University process for authorising work placements as part of your degree programme which LUBS Work Placements Team will roll out for the first time this semester. So the week that you receive a 100% confirmed work placement offer and you know that you want to accept this offer – the same week please:

1. Contact LUBS Work Placements Team via our email: LUBSPLACEMENTS@LEEDS.AC.UK AND

2. Confirm your: Name, degree, the name of the placement provider (the organisation who has made you a placement offer) and the anticipated start month at work (if known)

LUBS Work Placements will roll out the new University-required pre-placement paperwork process in due course once we are ready to do so ahead. We will contact students via University of Leeds email alone when we are ready to start this work.

• There are University pre-placement forms that must be completed by you first
• Once you have completed forms for us, we will send your employer Uni-required forms they will need to return, as instructed, to us after this
• Only once we have fully completed forms from you first and your employer second can we work at follow-on University paperwork and processes for authorising placements after this

We will advise further and let students know decisions re work placements in due course The process is quite long but we will aim to help all with offers as far as we can within Uni rules. Please aim to keep checking your University of Leeds email once a week once you have confirmed you have secured a work placement offer that meets with LUBS Work Placements Criteria to us. We will seek your help with the new processes and forms ahead.

We will also need time to follow up with your employer as well as within the University ahead So please contact us as soon as you know you have a work placement offer that you want to accept