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Industrial placements and internships

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What are industrial placements?

The Department of Computer Science runs an industrial placement scheme for our undergraduate students, which allows them to gain experience in the workplace during their academic studies at university. We can also arrange internships that take place within the summer vacation for three months.

All placements are carried out between the second and third years of their course. The placement year is treated as an assessed module of the course and is recognised as part of the degree.Industrial placements (or sandwich placements) enable the student to try a career field before graduating and to put into practice some of the knowledge gained from their course.

Many placement students are offered permanent positions to return to after they have graduated as a result of their work on the placement and generally perform better in their remaining studies and achieve higher grades.

Placements begin in over the summer for one year, with interviews beginning in the October of the preceding year.

Benefits for your organisation

University of York students are extremely flexible and typically have a wide range of skills. As a result, they are typically capable of integrating into development teams with very different technologies, cultures and processes. 
Alex Fargus, Lead Software Engineer, ETAS

Employing a placement or work experience student can be viewed as part of the interview process for future company employees. When you take a student on an industrial placement, there are a number of benefits for your business:

  • You gain an intelligent, motivated, cost-effective labour resource with valuable skills, knowledge and fresh ideas.
  • You pay two-thirds of a graduate salary for the placement student.
  • Placement students are a low risk resource solution when forward load is uncertain.
  • Development opportunities for current employees: for example, it allows opportunities for team leading.
  • Students’ networks can enable further effective recruitment.
  • Engagement with the University can provide beneficial contacts and research.

Read more about the companies that provide placements for our undergraduate students

Want to know more?

We are always looking for new industrial partners, so if you would like to find out more, or get involved, you can contact our Industrial Placements Team (cs-placements@york.ac.uk), or telephone on +44 (0)1904 325577.

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