About Placements & Internships

What is the difference between a placement & an internship?

Quite simply, not a lot! A placement is usually referring to a year-long sandwich placement, industrial placement, year in industry or work placement, whilst an internship is generally used for describing a shorter term 1-12 week internship, usually over the summer or at Christmas or Easter breaks. The two terms are very interchangeable however.

Why would I run a placement or internship scheme?

There are many benefits to bringing undergraduates into your business; here’s a selection of the best we hear: Demand amongst students for relevant work experience before they graduate has never been greater. Not only are students a cost-effective form of labour, they will be highly motivated to impress and bring enthusiasm, new ideas and skills to your business:

“Interns bring creativity, drive and a fresh perspective”

National Graduate Recruitment Manager, Grant Thornton Students on placement/internship schemes can get involved in a huge range of activities within the business. These can range from specific short-term projects through to supporting senior management on strategic decisions. IT, Sales and Marketing are popular areas to place students. Not only this, but a placement or internship scheme can be the perfect pipeline for your graduate recruitment as the students already know the business and its culture when they return

“By giving opportunities to students to taste our environment, we hope they will return to us as graduates who will hit the ground running as they have already got some sense of the professional world. Graduates who have done a 1 year Industrial Placement or at least a summer placement are definitely a lot more employable and able to adapt to working life very quickly.”

EMEA Graduate Recruitment Manager, Research In Motion (RIM).

I have never run a placement or internships scheme before, how do I go about it?

Tough question to answer in one paragraph, but here’s three quick fire steps we commonly hear. Firstly, I would recommend identifying exactly what the student(s) would do within the business. For larger organisations, this may involve identifying and the business units that would like a student and discussing with them. Make a decision on whether the cost base will be centralised through HR or assigned to the individual business units. View it as an extension to your graduate recruitment and put the students through the same application and training process so when they return as a graduate they can start adding value to your business from day 1!

When should I start advertising for placement/internship students?

There’s no real right or wrong answer here, however generally speaking the recruitment calendar ties in with the academic one. So undergraduates will start searching in September/October for placement opportunities to start the following summer. We have generally seen the 31st December and 31st January as peak dates for the placement application deadlines for larger organisations however we work with a number of organisations who recruit all year round. I would strongly advise not to leave it too late if you want a student to start their employment in the summer – recruiting any later than April would seriously limit the pool of talented students available.

How much should I be paying a placement student?

It is cited by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) Summer Survey 2008 that the average salary for a placement /internship student is £302 per week; this works out at £15,704 per year.

RateMyPlacement.co.uk FAQ’s

How much does it cost to have a presence on RateMyPlacement.co.uk?

It costs as little as £295 per month to have a Company Profile & 1 x Vacancy Listing on RateMyPlacement.co.uk and we have a whole host of other services to help you reach our unique first and second year audience. View our full list of services for employers, or contact us to receive our latest Media Pack.

What makes RateMyPlacement.co.uk unique?

RateMyPlacement.co.uk operates in two niches that differentiate us from other websites. Firstly, we are the only undergraduate recruitment website that specialises exclusively in student placements and internships. This ensures we provide employers with highly targeted services aimed at first and second year students who are interested in work experience opportunities. The second niche is the fact that we allow students to rate and review their experiences on placement and internship. This growing database of reviews provides unique and detailed user generated content to other students who are doing their research into the opportunities available. Within industries such as retail and travel, the concept of user-generated content and peer-to-peer reviews has been successfully leveraged (think Amazon and TripAdvisor) and consumers today have arguably never been more influenced by referrals and recommendations from other consumers. We have applied this simple concept within the growing sphere of student work placements and internships. Demand for work experience amongst today’s students has never been greater and our website provides a platform for students to share their experiences on placement or internship. This database of reviews then provides other students with unique, independent ratings and reviews from those who know best – the students who have been there and done it.

I would like to meet someone from RateMyPlacement, what do I do?

We would love to meet you to discuss your recruitment needs, or even just to explain RateMyPlacement in more detail. We are more than happy to visit you or alternatively, you are welcome to visit our office here in London Victoria. You can get in touch with us here.

About the reviews…

How do the reviews work?

Students submit reviews of their experiences to provide other students with a unique and detailed peer to peer insight into their experiences. Students can submit reviews themselves, they are also encouraged to review by their university and you too can encourage them to review. All reviews are read and moderated/approved by a member of the RateMyPlacement.co.uk Team prior to being set live on the website. Reviews that don’t adhere to our terms and conditions are not set live – this website is not an open forum for anyone to write anything they like.

How do I encourage my students to review?

The easiest and most effective method for encouraging reviews is sending your students an email with a link to our “Add Review” page. We run incentives throughout the summer to further incentivise (notoriously lazy!) students to review. Find out everything you need to know in how to get your students to write reviews.

Why should I encourage my students to review?

FREE exposure and content on the website! Reviews are completely free to you and your students and provide other students who are doing their research with information about the opportunities available and an insight into what it’s like to work for the business. Win an Award & reach our Top 20 Placement & Internship Employers table! Positive reviews could land you a place in our highly coveted Top 20 Placement & Internship Employers table, or an Award at the National Placement & Internship Awards. To find out more about the 2010 Table and the Awards, visit the awards website. http://www.ratemyplacementawards.co.uk Finally, if the thought of helping their fellow students isn’t enough, students who submit a review will also receive a reward for their time and effort. During 2009-10, we gave away over a thousand £5 hmv.com e-vouchers to reviewers!

What if I get a bad review?

Generally speaking, the vast majority of reviews are positive, even if the student hasn’t enjoyed a particular aspect. We do welcome constructive criticism as long as it is just that – constructive. Our worst rated reviews are actually some of our most constructive as they highlight areas such as dislocation from management and a lack of responsibility or support; something I am sure as a recruiter you would like to be aware of and address going forward. From our experience, employers actually value the negative reviews they receive as they can be used to identify areas for improvement and ultimately improve the success of a placement or internship scheme.

Still got a question?

Get in touch with us here.