Work placements

Work placements for St Mary's students

As a St Mary’s student, you will be offered various opportunities to develop your employability skills and engage in workplace learning through your programmes.  For the majority, this will include the opportunity to undertake a specific accredited Work Placement Module at Level 5 and Level 6 run by our dedicated Employability Services team.  

The specific work placement modules delivered by the Employability Services team provide you with the opportunity to undertake 50 hours of work placement in an organisation of your choice. Placement hours are worked throughout the semester alongside attendance at weekly lectures. 

These modules are run by a highly experienced team of academics, working alongside a dedicated team of placement officers and careers consultants providing you with outstanding support.  Our team will assist you with the process of finding a placement and will be there to guide and support you throughout your entire placement journey. 

Furthermore, these modules are accredited and count towards your final degree and offer you a unique opportunity to use your university time to enhance your CV, develop your employability skills and simultaneously apply your academic learning in a real-world setting. 

All work placement modules use active learning techniques with students also taking part in creative challenges, working on virtual scenarios or case studies, undertaking psychometric testing and working in teams on challenging tasks. 

What are the benefits of a work placement module?

A work placement module provides many benefits for you as a student.   

• A work placement module will enable you to gain important practical and professional experience which be added to your CV and discussed in interviews.
• By undertaking a placement, you will get to learn about a particular type of role and industry which can help you identify a future career path.
• You can put into practice and apply skills and knowledge gained on your degree course and see how they are used in the workplace.
• You will be able to develop and refine key employability skills that recruiters look for when hiring graduates.
• It will enable you to learn about yourself and to be able to help identify your own strengths and weaknesses which can help your professional development.
• Work placements provide an opportunity to develop your professional network and gain connections that may be useful in the future.