Industrial experience - introduction for students
While studying towards your physics degree, you can enrich your experience by doing a summer internship or a year in industry placement. The School of Physics and Astronomy offers the "Physics with a Year in Industry" programme both as a BSc and an MSci degree. The advantage of doing an industrial placement, whether a shot one over the summer or a longer one for a year, is that it will enhance your professional profile and advance your physics knowledge. A major skill that you will acquire is applying your classroom learning to solve real business needs of your host organisation. Industrial experience will also equip you with professoinal skills such as communication, team work and decision making. You will gain confidence and a clearer idea what you would like to do professionally once you graduate.
You can acquire industrial experience in two ways: (1) by doing a year in industry via "Physics with a Year in Industry" programme or (2) by doing a summer internship. These will differ in the breadth and depth of experience but will equip you with similar professional skills.
1. "Physics with a Year In Industry" BSc and MSci programmes
"Physics with Year in Industry" BSc and MSci programmes allow you to spend your 3rd year working in an industrial company or research organisation.
Programme Factsheet
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Programme Title
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“Physics with a Year in Industry” BSc
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“Physics with a Year in Industry” MSci
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Duration
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4 years, 3rd year out
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5 years, 3rd year out
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Tuition fees
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Work placement year in the United Kingdom. Students commencing 2017-18 or later
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£1,850 (Home fees)
50% of the relevant international fee
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Work placement year outside the United Kingdom. Students commencing 2017-18 or later
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£1,385 (Home fees)
50% of the relevant international fee
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Assessment
- A log of placement activities recorded via Mahara e-portfolio
- A reflective essay at the end of the placement based on the log
- An updated CV at the end of the placement to reflect new skills and experience
- A presentation of your placement experience to students looking to undertake a placement
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Support
The School’s dedicated Placements and Partnerships Development Officer Dr Olga Fernholz will provide comprehensive support in the process of searching and applying for a placement. The Placement Officer will pay a visit to the student on the placement to make sure that the placement progresses well and that both the student and the company are happy with the placement arrangements.
Careers and Employabilities Service also provides support with preparing CV, cover letters and going through the relevant stages of the placement recruitment process such as assessment centres, psychometric tests and interview. In most cases, applications for a placement involves sending a CV and a cover letter to the company and coming in for an interview.
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Note that it is the responsibility of the student to secure a placement. The student will make applications to companies. The company selects and hires its candidates. If the student's application is successful, the student becomes an employee of the company on a fixed-term contract for one year.
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"Physics with a Year in Industry" programme is available both for direct recruitment and transfer.
If you were initially registered on a single honours Physics programme (BSc or MSci) without a year in industry, but decided to do a placement later in your studies, you can transfer onto the "Physics with a Year in Industry" programme (BSc or MSci). This programme is open to transfer up until you are in your second year of studies. Within the "Physics with a Year in Industry" programme, a student goes out on a placement after their second year of study, both in case of the BSc and MSci programme. Upon the retun from the placement, the student returns to the university to complete their degree as usual: one year in case of a BSc or two years in case of an MSci.
It is still possible to do a year in industry placement after your third year of study, if the third year is your penultimate year of study, as it is on an MSci or a joint honours programme. The way to do a placement in this case would be via the Optional Placement Year provision delievered by the Careers and Employability Services. To read more about the Optional Placement Year, please go here.
2. Internship
Internship is a short-term industrial experience, typically up to 12 weeks over the summer. Many companies offer summer internships alongside year in idustry placements. Doing a summer internship is as valuable as doing a placement year, although the amount of exposure to the day-to-day work of the company and, by extension, the amount of learning would differ.
Resources
Please see the details of the "Physics with a Year in Industry" programme in the handbook.
Students will find comprehensive information about year in industry programme on Moodle page "Physics with a Year in Industry". It covers information about how you can join the placements programme, how to search for internships and placements and lists a selection of placement and internship vacancies particularly relevant to physics students.
The White Rose Industrial Physics Academy, or WRIPA, is a consortium of five university physics departments, including the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham. As part of WRIPA, we organise talks by industrial partners and career events for students. WRIPA web page contains useful digital tools for physics students. For example, you can run the Physics Careers Discovery tool to narrow down your career interests and look up Physics Careers Case Studies tool for students's stories about their internships and placements, including stories from Nottingham physics students.
With any questions and for support, email Placements Officer Dr Olga Fernholz.