At the School of Engineering, we are fully committed to forging good working relationships with industry partners on a national and global scale. One of the many ways we work in partnership with companies today is through summer placements and other work-based learning opportunities, which we believe form an essential part of a student’s career development.
Providing summer placements and other work-based learning opportunities to our students helps companies address vital business needs, from resourcing projects to identifying new talent while, at the same time, our students gain valuable industry experience and the commercial awareness needed to flourish in the world of work after graduating.
The School of Engineering follows a general engineering framework, which means that all of our students study the fundamentals of engineering during their first two years before transferring to one of our specialist degree programmes: Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical or Petroleum Engineering. The broad-based engineering education our students receive here at Aberdeen means that they develop a wider range of expertise and skills demanded by employers today, which also makes them particularly suitable for placement opportunities in diverse roles and sectors.
Our industry links and the employability of our students contribute enormously, along with our world leading research, to the overall reputation of the School of Engineering. Today we are ranked 7th in the UK and 1st in Scotland for General Engineering (Complete University Guide, 2020), which means we continue to attract the best engineering students from across the UK and internationally.
Whether your organisation is a large multinational or a local SME, there are a number of ways we can work with you to develop our students’ employability skills while also providing affordable recruitment solutions for your company.
Summer Placements
A summer placement, can help a student develop their engineering skills alongside their broader employability skills, while at the same time bringing knowledge and enthusiasm to a short term position. Each year, the School of Engineering works directly with organisations to promote
summer placement opportunities for our students during the summer vacation period, between June and August.
If your company already has an established summer placement programme or would like to start offering one, then we can advertise these opportunities to our students.
The key benefits for employers include:
- resource a project at minimal cost
- gain fresh insights and benefit from new ideas and perspectives
- raise your organisation’s profile and identify new talent
To evidence the skills students will develop whilst undertaking a placement, and upon successful completion of a qualifying placement, they will have the opportunity to record their skills in their MySkills Portfolio alongside other skills and development opportunities from their academic work, prizes and co-curricular activities.
Engineering Work Experience
Recently accredited by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise for the Scottish Innovative Student Awards (SISA), Our Engineering Work Experience course allows local engineering companies provide a work -based project for our year 2 undergraduate students as part of their degree studies.
Projects run for a 10 week period between January and March. The consultancy-style group projects enable students to address a real-life project brief, develop employability skills and gain commercial awareness. The project is an integral part of the student’s degree programme for which they gain academic credit; there is therefore no requirement to pay a salary.
Key benefits of a work-based project hosted by your organisation:
- Support the professional development of your staff whilst contributing to the skills development of our students.
- Gain fresh insights into your business area from enthusiastic students who can provide new perspectives and solutions to business issues.
- Address a business need: Propose a project topic which meets a requirement within your organisation.
- Raise your organisation profile and attract future talent at your organisation.
The course enables students to practise key career and project management skills, most notably team work, negotiation, action planning and communication. During the course students are also supported to undertake their project work via a series of on-campus seminars. Sessions are delivered by academic staff, the University’s Careers Service and the Scottish Institute for Enterprise.
Skills Development Workshops
The School of Engineering runs a series of Skills Development Workshops throughout the year where we invite industry professionals to present skills development workshops to our students.
Guest Lectures
The School welcomes external speakers from industry and academia and hosts a number of guest lectures each year aimed at providing with industry-based insights on what students learn in class.
Speed Careering
Speed Careering is a School of Engineering employability event where we invite a industry professionals who have followed diverse and exciting career paths to speak to small groups of students about their careers and organisations and to offer career tips and advice to students.
Contact Us
To learn more about how your company can partner with the School of Engineering at the University of Aberdeen and see the many ways
you can connect with our students, please contact:
Zaib McNeilly
Deputy School Administration Manager
School of Engineering
zaib.a.mcneilly@abdn.ac.uk