Sponsorship, Placements and Graduate Opportunities

Too many students still leave careers decisions too late. Some leave it till the final moment of their final year.

Did you know that many companies take 60% or more of their graduate intake each year from students who have been on sponsorship or placement programmes? Students who leave it late and approach employers as they are about to graduate (or have just graduated) might not, therefore, qualify for the majority of graduate jobs on offer. It is worth thinking about.

Read about Placements from a professor who is well placed to know the "ins and outs". You might already have got the low down on Sponsorship from our earlier section.

Browse through the variety of companies in our General category or our other subject sections: Science & Eng, Business and Finance, FMCG & retail, Public Service & Govt, IT & Comms. Find out about business sectors, the number of placements and sponsorships on offer and the number of graduate jobs with each employer.

Check out whom to contact and when to apply. We show whether you should apply in your 6th form before you reach university or which of you undergraduate years (1, 2 or 3) is more appropriate. Many companies have quite strict rules and deadlines - so apply during the appropriate year and get your applications in early. Deadlines vary for applications but the general rule is to apply sooner rather than later - you have been warned.

Just click our links to company websites to find out further information or download application forms. Use the email links for a more personal service. Our listings sections give a wealth of details but where no data is given it was not made available to us.

Be prepared before you apply to an employer and revise through the tips in our guide. Our sections work together to give you that added advantage. Make sure you have everything you wanted to know.

A step to a career

Professor Michael Pennington,
Department of Physics, University of Durham

Being eighteen years old and about to enter on a University degree course is the opening of one of the most exciting doors along the labyrinthine corridors of life. Often parents and friends ask but what after that?

If you are embarking on a degree course in medicine or electrical engineering, you very often have a career in mind. If its medicine, you may not have decided whether to specialise in obstetrics or ear, nose and throat, but you have a career in your sights, with the clear idea that your qualification will be a passport to a challenging future with reasonable security and financial rewards: a natural consideration, at a time of talk of rising student debt. Clearly, medical studies incorporate years of work placement starting off on the wards of a nearby city hospital examining your first real patient with sweating palms under the intimidating gaze of the consultant and the anxious on-looking of your fellow students. Eventually, you emerge from this "chrysalis" to become a competent, confident doctor with a well-honed bedside manner - hopefully.

However, those entering University to study history or modern languages or physics may not be quite so focused on a career, awaiting whatever turns up. Nevertheless, having graduated in any subject, not just medicine or engineering, the world is your oyster. Trained manpower is in demand, almost regardless of the specific subject, provided the training involves an ability to solve problems, think logically, be articulate in written and spoken word, together with an element of numeracy. These transferable skills common to almost every degree programme provide the passport to the future, whether in risk management in the banking and investment sector, or in the editorial offices of the broad-sheets, or in community health.

But how do students choose careers?

The rest of this article which covers the major aspects of work placements appears in the hard copy of the Everything You Wanted to Know guide. For information on how to obtain your copy click here>.

Key to abbreviations

The information in our Jobs/Placements sections offers details on graduate vacancies together with sponsorship and placements opportunities with key employers.

Information is listed against the following, sometimes appearing as abbreviations -

Company Name
B Business Sector
TL Training locations
TLO Training locations overseas
UVP undergraduate vacation placements number
U12P undergraduate 12 month placements number
US undergraduate sponsorships number
Bur? bursary level
Appl Years of application for sponsorships/placements in 6th form and/or undergrad years 1,2,3
Subj course subjects
GV graduate vacancies number
PG studentships/sponsorships for postgraduates ?bursary
PQ Professional qualifications expected to be attained
p univ preferred universities
ORI other relevant information
Con Company contact
Add Company address
www. Company website www.
email if not shown contact via website