Placement Hub

Recruit a Placement Student

The Careers and Work Placement Office at Queen's School of Biological Sciences expertly connects businesses with specific needs with top-quality students to fill industry placements locally, nationally, and globally.

Working closely with employers throughout the placement process, we provide guidance on application timelines, advertise roles, collate applications, schedule and facilitate interviews, and much more making the process simple and supportive.

Employer Benefits

Placement Timeline

Placement Programmes

Placement Team

Employer benefits

Why hire a placement student?

Regardless of the size or location of your organisation, employers can benefit from recruiting a placement student. Of our previous placement hosts surveyed:

100% found our students work ethic to be good - excellent
94% stated a student with one year industry placement experience is more appealing than those without
78% offered placement students a graduate role or had previous placement students return via other routes

Additionally:

Your business will gain new ideas and fresh enthusiasm
An extra resource is a cost-effective, flexible solution to recruitment needs.
You can train and evaluate placement students for potential graduate opportunities, developing a pipeline.
Your business will develop links with Queen’s School of Biological Sciences, and the wider University.
Students come with new skills and knowledge of modern practices and technologies.
Your existing staff can develop supervisory skills through mentoring a student on placement.

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Hear about the placement experience

Hear from Geraldine who undertook a placement year at Suki Tea and is now employed with the company as a Technical Quality Coordinator . Annie Rooney, Co-Director, shares why the experience was so beneficial to both her team and Geraldine.

Hear about the placement experience

Hear from Ellen McGeough who undertook a placement year at AECOM in Belfast. Paul Donaghey, Ecologist, shares his views on the success of the placement.

More Employer Testimonials

Placement Timeline

What support is available?

Our dedicated school placement team is on hand to support both student and employer through all stages of the process. A guide to the placement process is highlighted below, although please note we are able to offer flexibility.

Year Round (October - March the key timeframe)	Placements advertised to students	Contact the Placement Team for information and support in advertising your vacancy. Employer provides job description for the placement opportunity to be advertised for students to apply to.
October	Students begin sourcing placements	Support completing application forms, CV, cover letters as well as interview skills preparation available.
November - March	Placement interviews undertaken by employers	We can offer space to hold interviews on site.
April - August	Majority of postgraduate placements commence	Leadership for Sustainable Development and Leadership for Sustainable Rural Development commence earlier (January). Placement team co-ordinates agreements and deal with any queries.
May - September	Undergraduate placements commence	Placement team co-ordinates agreements and deal with any queries.
Year round	Queen’s staff visit	Depending on the placement duration, Queen’s staff will visit and review placement progress at least once but are available to contact at all times.

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Undergraduate Placement Programmes

Who can I recruit?

All of our undergraduate students have the option to add a year long placement onto their degree programme, in roles across both lab-based and non-lab settings (details on potential positions and fields can be found in our placement brochure). Many also have the option to add a shorter 12-14 week placement, details given below:

Programme	Duration	When
Agricultural Technology	12-14 Weeks or Year Placement	12 - 14 weeks Commences May/June to September Year Placement Commences the end of second year starting from June to September (It is an option for students to split the year placement between two different placement hosts)
Biochemistry	Year Placement
Biological Sciences	12-14 Weeks or Year Placement
Environmental Management	12-14 Weeks or Year Placement
Food Science and Nutrition	12-14 Weeks or Year Placement
Marine Biology	12-14 Weeks or Year Placement
Microbiology	Year Placement
Zoology	12-14 Weeks or Year Placement

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Postgraduate Placement Programmes

Who can I recruit?

Many of our postgraduate students have the option to add a short placement onto their degree programme, in roles across both lab-based and non-lab settings (details on potential positions and fields can be found in our placement brochure). Duration varies between programmes, details given below:

Programme	Duration	When
Animal Behaviour and Welfare	12 Weeks	April - August
Ecological Management and Conservation Biology	12 Weeks	April - August
Leadership for Sustainable Development	Three 8 Week Placements	January - March April - June July - August
Leadership for Sustainable Rural Development	16 Weeks	January - June
Molecular Biology and Biotechnology	12 - 14 Weeks	May - August

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Placement Team

Who do I talk to about recruiting a placement student?

Placements are organised through the School's Careers and Work Placement Office, who have strong relationships with businesses locally, nationally, and globally. Each degree course has a specialist Careers and Work Placement Consultant to support students.

If you have a placement opportunity and would like to speak to the associated Careers and Work Placement Consultant, please see details below:

Ecology, Sustainability and Animal related areas: Dionne Alexander

Agricultural Technology, Food Science and Life Sciences: Grace Heatley

Interested?

Contact Careers Team

Biological Sciences

Placement Hub

Recruit a Placement Student

Hear about the placement experience

Hear about the placement experience

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