Begin your creative careers before graduation
Use your creative skills on an industry placement year on many of our creative courses. This placement year takes place before the final year of your sandwich degree course.
When you do a placement, you'll work for a year for a business or startup company. You can also take a short-term placement if that better suits your studies. Or you can do a self-employed placement year running your own business.
Previous students studying art, design, performance, film or media spent their placement years as photographers, production interns, 3D modellers and film editors.
Our students have had incredible experiences on their placements. A fashion intern at FatFace had her design sold on the high street, one of our students was a runner on a film starring Michael Caine, and one of our students on placement with Paul Smith worked at Paris Fashion Week.
I was lucky enough to work in industry during my placement year at Vacherin in 2018, where I took on the role of their marketing assistant. This was of great value to me, gaining experience of working in a real-life company, and the opportunity allowed me to learn new skills in a professional setting. I made invaluable contacts there and can now move forward with a better insight into what is expected. Vacherin also nominated me for Best Placement Student of the Year 2018, an award that recognises the significant contributions students make during their placement year. This was exciting for me and I was even lucky enough to win the award; it is one of my proudest moments of university.
Placement year roles
The type of role you’ll apply for depends on your interests within the creative and cultural industries.
Some of the roles our students have done during their sandwich year placement include:
- Photographer
- 3D modeller and designer
- Production intern
- Interior design intern
- Film editor
- Marketing executive
For many courses, the University gives you the opportunity to take a placement year in between the 2nd and 3rd year of your studies. After a long application process, I was lucky enough to be accepted for a year’s internship at The Walt Disney Company, which will really help me when it comes to getting a job. That year, in particular, taught me so much and helped me make a lot of contacts within the industry; it was a dream come true.
Placement locations
Our previous students on creative degrees have done placements at locations including:
Self-employed placement opportunities
You could run your own business or startup on your sandwich year. Or you could work with other students to build a profitable company. If you go down this route, you'll get mentoring and support from us.
Creative careers placement students have started a business in areas such as:
- Computer game development
- Website development
- Freelance photography
- Freelance film-making
Browse our courses
Are you ready to increase your employment opportunities and strengthen your skills by doing a sandwich year degree? Browse our placement degree courses now.
Register your interest
We offer expert advice, the latest placement opportunities and support when you are on your Placement.
- Register your interest in doing a placement and join our mailing list.
- Search for placement opportunities on our Work Placements Jobsboard.
- If you're preparing your CV ready to start making applications, you can come to our drop-in sessions. Drop-in runs Monday-Friday between 1.00-4.00pm during term time. You don't need to book - just come into our Careers and Employability centre and we'll try to see you on the day.
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Book an appointment to speak with an adviser. You need to register with us first, you will then be able to book online via the links below:
Placement Appointment - 20 mins
Virtual Placement Appointment - 20 mins
If you have any questions about placements you can email us placements@port.ac.uk.