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Careers and Employability
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STEM Placements and Internships

We are the STEM Placements and Internships Team, and we help students in their first, second and postgraduate year to secure insight experiences, summer internships or a year long placement within their STEM subject area.

What is a placement?

A year-long paid placement in your chosen industry during your penultimate or postgraduate year at University.

You could end up working for a leading organisation such as Airbus, BBC, Bouygues, Caterpillar, Environment Agency, Gatwick Airport, IBM, Panasonic, Pfizer, Rolls Royce, and Southern Water, or have a fantastic experience with a smaller or medium-sized employer who could really open your eyes to what it’s like running a business and could be a leading organisation of the future.

What is an internship?

A short work experience either paid or unpaid over the summer period during your first or penultimate year at university, normally about 6–12 weeks.

What is an insight experience?

A short work experience either paid or unpaid within an employer in the Spring or Summer of your first year at university, normally a day or a week.

Why do a placement/internship?

  • Earn a salary whilst gaining hands-on experience that will complement your degree
  • Gain insider contacts and set yourself apart from the competition
  • Learn directly from the experts with all the support you need
  • Get a ‘foot in the door’ that might even lead to a graduate job!

Image of the STEM team

Are you an employer?

Placements and Internships

Placements and Internships are more crucial to your employability and future prospects than ever. Talk to us today about opportunities that are right for you.

Contact us

You can email us at stemplacements@brighton.ac.uk

STEM placements and internships available in these subjects

  • Architecture
  • Built Environment
  • Computing and Games
  • Spatial and Product Design
  • Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Biomedical and Molecular Sciences
  • Geography, Earth and Environment

Hear about placements during your studies

Understanding placements

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What it's like on a placement

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Undertaking a placement year as an Environment Health and Safety Intern has been the best decision that I could have made for my career.

Geraldine Rumbold, Physical Geography and Geology BSc(Hons)

Don't just take their word for it, here are some more recent placement students who would like to share their experiences

Piers - Computer Science

My name is Piers and I’m entering my final year of computer science. I recently finished my placement year at Lighthouse Systems, a software development company located just outside of Crawley.

My placement year allowed me not only to improve upon my technical ability through working frequently with C# and SQL, but also on soft skills such as teamwork, relationship building, and communication. The year in industry has boosted my confidence in my postgraduate employability enormously.

I would recommend all students to do a placement year, as it is an experience that opens up so many opportunities.

Image of student - Piers

Daniel - Engineering

My placement was in the Airbus Defence and Space mechanical design office in Portsmouth. Here I was involved in 3D modelling of parts and assemblies, 3D printing prototypes, and reviewing 3D designs using the virtual reality equipment in the office!

I was able to secure my placement thanks to the help and guidance of the placements team.

Despite having very limited work experience and CV writing experience, the team were able to proof read my applications and run mock interviews with me to boost my confidence. I would highly recommend any student to apply for a placement.

Image of student - Daniel

Marta - Maths

Hi, I’m Marta and I’m a maths student, currently on placement at Clarksons Research.

I started in my role as a Data Technician while working from home: it was a situation in which me, or my employers, have never been in due to the COVID pandemic. I can confidently say that, after my short time at the company, my organisational and IT skills have sharpened.

Clarksons has given me a better insight into how the research industry works, which has given me a better idea of what I want to do in the future.

Image of student - Marta

Jake - Environmental Sciences

My name is Jake and I am currently studying Environmental Science BSc(Hons). I undertook my year-long placement as a Geo-Environmental Engineer at Land Science (Burgess Hill).

Throughout this placement, I developed new industry-based skills that enabled me to confidently conduct tests and interpret data to produce a clear and coherent report. These were specific to a client’s needs and/or engineering specifications.

This placement gave me an excellent insight into how the geo-technical industry works, and how process is applied to individual cases can create a coherent investigation. This knowledge will allow me to enter the industry with an excellent understanding of the direction I wish to go in, and, areas where I can improve personally.

Image of student - Jake

Niveka - Geography

My name is Niveka Victoria, and I’m currently studying Geography BSc(Hons). I did my placement year at OFGEM, in Canary Wharf as a data analyst. It was nothing short of anything but a great experience. I was blessed with such an amazing manager and had a great team to work with. I learnt so much through each one I met at this organisation. This placement will benefit me in the future, as it’s a great experience to have in this competitive world and I have made a great group of connections, and I believe networking is important.

I am glad that the University of Brighton pushed me to venture out of my comfort zone and persuaded me to do a placement year.

I would recommend all students to do a placement year, as it is an experience that opens up so many opportunities.

Image of student - Niveka

Katarzyna - Biomedical Science

Although my placement-seeking journey was exceptionally long, I managed to land my Marketing Placement at Stryker, one of the top 10 medical devices and technologies companies in the world.

As an intern in Spine division, I was supporting execution of the marketing strategy for all European markets and some of my responsibilities included conducting market and competitor analysis, designing marketing collateral and managing internal communication channels.

Having had a chance to observe surgeons using Stryker’s products during live surgeries, I developed deeper understanding of the customer-facing roles and realised the impact we, as a company, had on patients’ lives.

As a person that has always had a profound desire to help people, this realisation opened a door to new career opportunities for me.

Image of student - Katarzyna

Ben - Product Design

My placement year was at Focusrite, a music technology company located in London. The year was an opportunity to build upon existing knowledge and learn new skills from seasoned professionals, such as app development, designing for accessibility, and reacting to user feedback throughout the design process.

Participating in a placement year is a great opportunity to put your course knowledge to practice, and work on real, valuable projects that can make a difference in the world.

Not only did it set me up with a plethora of new and improved skills for final year, my work ethic and focus improved dramatically. Do not hesitate to undertake a placement year.

Image of student - Ben

We can help you to

  • Identify your ideal sandwich placement/summer internship

  • Develop a personalised placements plan

  • Create your perfect placement/internship CV

  • Identify and describe your skills

  • Navigate the interview process

  • Myth bust the placement process – your questions answered.

How do we support you with

  • 1-2-1 appointments to help you in searching/applying for a placement/internship

  • Masterclasses on applying for placement/internship, such as CV, covering letters, interviews and LinkedIn

  • Employer forums – Employer workshops where you get to network with employers offering placement/internship opportunities.

  • Exclusive placement/internship opportunities with local companies for Brighton students.

  • Past placement student Q&A sessions to hear from students already out on placement.

  • Drop-in sessions to ask those burning questions about placements/internships

For STEM Placement and Internship opportunities, stories and support, check out our new blog

Are you graduating with a STEM degree? NHS Scientist Training programme 2023 now open.

Are you graduating with a STEM degree? NHS Scientist Training programme 2023 now open.

If you would like to work in public health the NHS is now advertising for the Scientist Training Programme to begin in 2023 (deadline 23rd January at 4pm).

Graduate Job Opportunities for Final Year Students

Graduate Job Opportunities for Final Year Students

Our latest pick of graduate job opportunities for 2022.

Brighton Works Week 2021: Engineering and Tech focus on Wednesday 27 October

Brighton Works Week 2021: Engineering and Tech focus on Wednesday 27 October

Want to find out how to start your career in engineering or tech?

Autocar Drivers of Change Competition

Autocar Drivers of Change Competition

Would you like to be in with the chance to win £5000 and gain exclusive networking opportunities with senior members of the automotive industry, such as McLaren or Volvo?

Read more from our blog

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