Placements

Doing a placement at King’s can be a great way to give you the opportunity to gain skills specific to your subject or industry of choice, as well as the employability skills required for real-life work. It also increases your knowledge of an industry or sector, allowing you to make better-informed decisions for future career choices. Placements can lead to better grades in your final year(s) of study, a graduate offer from your placement employer and a higher likelihood of securing graduate employment.

Placements take place between years 2 and 4 for a minimum of 11 months. All students at King’s will earn a salary whilst on placement; we don’t work with non-paying organisations. Salaries will vary depending on organisation size, sector and location but start from an average of £20,000 (per annum) up to £50,000+ (per annum).

As you undertake a placement year as part of your degree, you will remain students at King’s College London and will receive support from the university throughout your placement. The fee paid during the placement is lower than the standard tuition fee.

Currently, within the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES), we are offering placements in the following programmes in the Chemistry and Informatics departments:

NMES has a dedicated Placements Team who is on hand to help students with support, advice and employer information on the different types of placements students can apply for, as well as guiding them through the academic and administrative stages. We also run CV sessions and application advice workshops.

Contact us

Have a question about your placement year? Get in touch with the Global Placements Team: global-placements@kcl.ac.uk

Are you an organisation looking to host a placement student? Please refer to our recruitment pages

There are many benefits to a year in industry:

Get "on the job" experience, "test drive" your future career
Earn a wage (average Placement salary in the UK is £20,000)
Experience working and living outside of the UK, you can take a Placement outside of inside of the UK!
Potentially receive a graduate offer following a successful Placement
Stand out in a competitive global labour market & be more prepared for Graduate applications
Gain transferable skills and improve your employability
Meet new people from different backgrounds and ages
Socialise during and after work
Take a break from your formal studies and learn in a different way
60% of former interns & Placement students were recruited into Graduate jobs with their Placement employers (ISE 2021 report)
Students who have completed a Placement are 16% more likely to achieve a first-class degree (SMF 2021 report)

Accenture - Software Engineering Technology Industrial Placement
AWS - Associate Professional Services Consultant Intern
Bank of America - Technology Analyst
Bank of England - SWIFT Configuration Analyst Junior
Capital One - Software Academic Placement Student
EY - Technology Consultant
GE Aviation - Digital Technology Intern
Goldman Sachs - Internal Audit work placement
GRsearch - Technical Support Placement
GSK - Project Management Excellence Analyst*
IBM - Software Developer
John Lewis Partnership - Data Scientist
Lloyds Banking Group - Technical Analyst*
Mercedes HPP - Software and Controls Placement Student
Microsoft - Partner Technology Analyst
Qinetiq - Placement Research Chemist*
Rolls-Royce Motor Cards Ltd - IT Infrastructure
Sage Group - Customer Data Analyst*
Sainsburys - Analytics Intern
Sony Group - Application Support Analyst
UBS - Asset Management*
Vodafone - Digital API Exposure Specialist

*Undertaken by Chemistry students.

In order to undertake a Placement, you must:

Be enrolled on one of the 6 degree programmes in NMES that offer a Placement
Meet the academic progression requirements as outlined by your specific department
Have secured your own placement by Summer of your second year (or third year if you are on the MSci Chemistry degree).

All students are responsible for securing their own placement and such opportunities can never be guaranteed, however our dedicated Global Placements Team provides extensive support and advice.

A carefully designed programme of placement events and workshops will help you to develop professional skills, giving you the confidence to find and secure the right opportunity, and make an excellent impression once you are there:

1-1 Careers Consultations
Placement Preparation Workshops
Regular Placement specific newsletters
Employer Networking Events
Peer Learning & Placement Student Social Events
Dedicated In-Placement Support
An online Placements Hub full of resources and guidance
King’s CareerConnect: our online vacancy board advertising hundreds of job opportunities.

Information for prospective employers

If your company can offer suitable placement opportunities, please get in touch as soon as possible. Depending on the stage of the placements programme, you can advertise vacancies on our internal job board or establish a link for the next academic year. Vacancies start being advertised from the beginning of the Autumn Term. If you're interested in engaging directly with our students, get in touch with us at Global-Placements@KCL.ac.uk, and we can discuss the best way for you to promote your opportunities directly with our students! We're always happy to receive testimonials from current Placement students too, to promote and share as well.