Skip to main content
Southampton Solent University logo
Southampton Solent University logo

Is your business looking to benefit from latest industry insight? Is a current project requiring extra resource on a limited budget? Do you want to provide development opportunities for existing staff?

Offering a short-term student placement opportunity can be the answer to all the above. Varying in duration to meet the needs of your business, student placements provide you with the chance to benefit from fresh insight while providing our students with an opportunity to apply their academic learning. Placements can provide a great short-term resource for your business while providing an opportunity to develop pipelines of future talent.

Benefits for an employer

  • Additional resource to complete projects and short-term objectives.
  • Motivated students with specialist knowledge and cutting-edge ideas.
  • A cost-effective solution to a business challenge.
  • A means of identifying potential employees for future employment.
  • A low-risk recruitment method of through ‘growing your own’.
  • Providing current staff development opportunities via mentoring of the student/s.

Read our placement employer handbook

Types of placement at Solent

Solent has a flexible approach to placements and work-based learning, therefore, depending on the course, you will find different placement requirements.

Short or vacation placements

A short-term placement opportunity is usually offered and advertised by employers, although it may also be secured through a speculative application. Taken by students at any level of study in vacation time or part-time during an academic year.

Sandwich or year-long placements

A placement equivalent of a year’s academic study. Typically taken by undergraduate students as the penultimate year of their course.

Term-time placements

If a full-time placement, it would be equivalent of a term of academic study. May also be used to describe a part-time placement where a student integrates spending one or two days a week throughout the term on placement with their academic study.

Work shadowing

Informal activities where a student will spend time on company premises but will have no contract or expectation of making a working contribution; it is an observation opportunity.

What courses offer placements?

Many courses offer placements or work-based learning. To give you a clearer understanding of the courses that offer placements please see the document below that provides details of courses who have had students register a placement with Solent Careers since 2020.

Courses that offer placements

Find out more

If hiring a placement student is the answer to your business challenge, or you have any queries about what could be available, please contact careers@solent.ac.uk who will be able to support you and get your placement opportunity live. You can also visit Solent Futures Online for more information and other ways we can support businesses. 

Back to top