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Learning for its own sake is important, but so is finding meaningful and relevant employment after graduation, and in a precarious job market, students need real-world skills and academic knowledge to succeed. By embedding employability into curricula, we can support students in building these.

Work placements are a popular option for psychology students. As a broad and applied discipline, psychology study prepares graduates for a diverse range of professional pathways across health, education, business, public services and the third sector. This breadth creates exciting opportunities for industry engagement, while also requiring innovative approaches to developing meaningful work-based learning experiences that meet the needs of students and employers.

The diversity of a psychology cohort makes finding opportunities to suit all aspirations and areas of focus challenging. Work experience needs to align with learning. And the collaboration with host organisations needs to be reciprocal so that they also benefit from the partnership.  

Give students control over their placement experience

Meaningful work experience looks different for every student. As such, it is important to regularly review different types of opportunities in a range of organisations. Ideally, students should carry out tasks of varying difficulty, impact and duration. A scaffolded approach can prevent them from feeling out of their depth while ensuring they are appropriately challenged and can build new skills.  

Students should have the option to self-source their placements. If they choose to complete theirs in an organisation they are already involved with in one capacity, ensure they work in a different department and carry out different tasks. 

In addition, let students choose whether to work in groups or individually. If they opt for group work, ask them if they want to choose their own groups or whether a teacher or employer should choose for them.

Giving the students the choice supports a greater sense of autonomy and could ultimately improve engagement during placements. 

Research and international placements

Academic research placements can offer valuable experience to students keen to work as research assistants. They can do these at universities and other organisations including charities. These kinds of placements involve contributing to literature reviews and supporting with bid applications, building vital ethical and critical thinking skills that will help them stand out in job applications, even if they do not end up going down the research route. 

International placements offer enriching opportunities and enhance international collaboration. We have given students the chance to work in schools in Finland as well as online with international charities such as El Sistema Greece. Our international partnerships have all begun with conversations within our own networks. One of the benefits of working in academia is that it is easy to build these with local, national and international colleagues who can help you secure opportunities.

Bear in mind that many students are now volunteering or have work experience, so may not see the value in doing a placement during their studies. Furthermore, some students may find it difficult to get a placement that aligns with their career aspirations. For example, a student who wants experience working with people from a range of age groups and who has previously worked with young people may not find a placement working with children as useful. 

Technology now enables hybrid and fully remote working, options that suit students who cannot participate physically. We have found putting large groups of students on virtual placements highly effective for creating lively spaces that encourage idea sharing.

Prepare students for the realities of psychology work 

Psychology placements typically involve emotionally demanding work. Students might support individuals navigating adversity such as mental health challenges and homelessness. 

They may arrive with assumptions about their responsibilities and interpersonal dynamics but may not always be prepared for the emotional impact of the work. To pre-empt this, we run sessions that build awareness and prepare students to confront complex ethical dilemmas. We have also embedded a toolkit, Preparing for practice, within our placement module for pre- and post- placement exercises, covering topics such as the stress bucket and the window of tolerance to help students understand how the cumulative impact of multiple stressors can affect them. 

Beyond emotional support, providing insight into the activities, deadlines and expected outcomes of their placements can help students understand what will be expected of them during their time with their employer. 

Encourage students to reflect on their experiences 

To assess the quality of and improve placements for future cohorts, we ask students to present their experiences orally via portfolios or in essays. 

You can build on this by encouraging students to think about what comes next. By sharing their experiences in blogs and industry-relevant magazines, they can demonstrate skills to future employers.

Students get the most out of work placements when they align with their career aspirations and when we allow them to make key decisions that shape their experiences. Complement this by equipping them with the emotional and professional skills to undertake the work well to build a solid foundation for future psychology careers. 

Kalum Bodfield is the Faculty of Health and Education lead for graduate outcomes and employability and senior lecturer in psychology. Kate Whitenbury is co-deputy employability lead, and lecturer in psychology. Emma Tarpey is deputy faculty education lead, and associate practice fellow in forensic psychology. Melissa Pilkington is the employability lead, and senior lecturer in psychology. Aspa Paltoglou is co-deputy employability lead, and senior lecturer in psychology. All work at Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Student article published on the British Psychological Society's website: