International Work placements (including for language students)
Many students have the opportunity to do a work placement as part of their course. This may be a year in industry or a year abroad.
If you are undertaking a placement as part of your degree, check your School’s requirements as they may not permit overseas placements, or only within certain countries. Your placements co-ordinator may also be able to recommend past employers that students have been placed with.
Checklist
- Which countries could you go to to use your language, or if you do not have another language, where can you work where this is not a problem?
- What type of work are you looking for? Knowing your skills and having some experience will help you establish what types of jobs you would be most suited to.
- Understand the job market and economy, how easy will it be to find a job? Where are jobs / industries located geographically?
- Check the timing of advertised opportunities to ensure it fits your timetable.
- When are opportunities likely to be advertised? It may not be the same as in the UK.
- If your intended employer wants to use a 'placement agreement' (common in France and Germany), you need to know what to do. See our placement agreements page for advice
- It may not be paid. Unpaid internships / placements are common in some countries.
- Eligibility. Do you need a visa or to be a national or studying in that country?
- What is the application method? Does your application need to be in the home language of the country.
- What does a CV or resume look like for this country? There is some guidance on - just be aware that guidance may not be purely aimed at the student /graduate market
Start researching your destination
- Prospects country guides information and links for finding jobs plus visa information.
- use the country profiles to find out about working in different countries, includes top employers and jobsearch sites. Use the internships & jobs search to look for live opportunities. Select the country in the drop down list and put internship or placement in the keyword search box. This will bring up a mixture of summer and longer opportunities (because internship or placement doesn't mean the same thing in all countries). You will need to read the information carefully some opportunities will need visas or specific nationality criteria. If in doubt contact the company offering the opportunity.
About Erasmus
Due to the UK intention to leave the EU, the future of Erasmus funding and exchange is uncertain. The University statement on this is here.
Find opportunities
- Careerslink Use the advanced vacancy search to choose: vacancy type: Student placement/internship + Duration 1-3 months + a region. eg. N America or Asia.
There are hundreds of companies that help in finding placements or internships abroad. However many are commercial companies and may charge for their services, so undertake research before making any decisions.
- Gap year providers lists
- Prospects job search - select work experience and worldwide
- British Council Language Assistants Teaching opportunities abroad.
- Erasmus Intern Advertises hundreds of internships and placements across Europe, from 3-12 months.
- AIESEC Placements and internships, including management, technical, education and development, in over 90 countries.
- Globalplacement.com Placements and internships website, searchable by location and sector/profession.
- iAgora Jobs board listing placements and internships in over 20 countries. Some job listings are only accessible to fee-paying members.
- IST Plus Arranges professional internships in the USA, as well as teaching and volunteering.
- ALZEA Organise paid and unpaid internships in Europe and globally. They charge a fee for this however this is refunded if no suitable internship is found.
