Recruiting placement students from Aston

How it works

If you have a work programme that is suitable for placement training, we will advertise the vacancy to our students. They (and we) will need to know the work envisaged, and issues like location, salary and any special requirements such as driver's licence, knowledge of a particular language, ...

Normally the students apply directly to you, but if you wish we can collect applications and send them in a bundle to you.

We advise that most recruiting for a summer start commences in the previous autumn and is finished by Easter, and if you want a good pool of students to recruit from, that you recruit in this period.

After that the finalising of the employment is between you and the student, although we will advise in this process if requested.

After the student has completed their second year, they will join you as an employee. We will visit the student in their work place normally twice, when we can discuss the progress of their training.

Is the work suited to requirements for placement training?

The training the student needs is to lead them to a Chartered Engineering qualification. This means that it should have some design, decision making and possibly managerial content. Some work that might normally be done by technician level staff is useful experience for the student, but should not be a major part of their programme.

We like to see at least two stages of the Software Development Lifecycle in their training programme. Beyond that we do not seek to be prescriptive. Any programme that meets these broad guidelines will almost certainly be suitable.

The minimum duration for the placement is 40 weeks, and the contract of employment should guarantee this (with the usual exceptions for misconduct etc.)

We encourage the students to remain with the company for a full year.

To check on suitability of a programme: A side of A4 setting out the programme ( and an indication of the IT qualifications and background of the likely supervisor) is normally enough. Send it to the Professional Placement Tutor and we will provide you with quick comment.

Work that is not suitable may be gauged from some of the following examples: Call centre work, help desk work (except for a couple of weeks in total), routine testing work, software and/or hardware installation (except as a minor part or the programme)

Information we need

A description of the work proposed
Duration of appointment
Information on the company
Salary, leave and other employment conditions
Any special requirements: driver's licence, particular skills, foreign language skills ...
Closing date for applications
Application format
Applications directly to you or collected by us for forwarding to you
If you think that your work might only be suitable for the more able students, let us know so we can counsel students accordingly.

The application and selection process

We email students with brief details of the placement (one paragraph or so)
Students will ask for further information which we lend to them
Students complete application process
Applications forwarded
You choose students you wish to interview, and either invite them to visit you or we can provide interview and presentation faclitities. It is assumed that you will meet expenses when students visit you for interview.
On presentations: students find it difficult to fit attendance at presentations into their schedule, and attendance is therefore not always as good as you might wish.
You contact us for references
You advise us when you have appointed a student.