Ashley Morahan, Adaptix Ltd
"A placement is a great way to learn about a field and help make decisions in future employment. It’s also an opportunity to live in a new area and meet new friends"
Work placements
Work placements are an excellent opportunity to develop employability skills, build links with organisations and get a taste for what your future career will be like. Through our partnership with the South East Physics Network (SEPnet), we help our students to find the right placement opportunity for them, within a wide range of local organisations.
The placements are always paid, and last for eight weeks in the summer of your second year, or third year if you're studying a four-year degree. We have a dedicated SEPnet careers advisor here at Southampton who will assist you throughout the process – from application, through to support on your placement.
Students work on a range of projects including data analysis, programing, product design and testing as part of their placements. In recent years students have been placed with organisations such as BAE Systems, BMW, NKT Photonics, RAL Space, Roke Manor Research, Symetrica, Thales, The Meterological Office, The National Physics Laboratory and Winchester Science Centre.
Interested in a longer work placement? Have a look at our MPhys Physics with Industrial Placement programme.
Read about our students experiences below:
Anasthasia Manu, National Physical Laboratory
"My placement greatly helped me in my decisions on whether I want to do a PhD and also what it takes to do real life research for a commercial research company"
Andrew Cox, Phoenix Photonics
"Doing a placement is an excellent experience. I am considering taking another internship next year to see whether I enjoy working with lasers instead of fibres"
Matthew Abbott, Deimos Space UK
"Doing a placement was one of the best experience I have ever had. I met some great people, did some really interesting and stimulating work"
Madalina Mironiuc, Colour Holographic Ltd
"The work placement was an incredibly valuable experience. It allowed me to apply the skills and knowledge I had gained during my degree"
Download the Employability Case Study Booklet
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