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WORK PLACEMENTS
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
We offer a sandwich Placement Year with all our Both types of placement will provide you with insight into the
Biological Sciences courses after your second organisation and sector you are working in, as well as the huge
year of study. Courses including the sandwich variety of jobs available, therefore enabling you to identify your
preferred career path. Both will also provide you with those
Placement Year hold Advanced Degree crucial employability skills you need as a graduate and enable
Accreditation by the Royal Society of Biology, you to expand your network of connections. Most placements
highlighting its potential to educate the life are salaried, and you can expect to earn between £8,000 and
science leaders and innovators of the future. £17,000 during the year. A placement sometimes leads to an
offer of a position after graduation or future sponsorship for
studying a PhD, and you can certainly expect to extend your
Not only do you get a year of practical work experience, as professional network.
part of the sandwich Placement Year you also undertake
a research project that is devised and supervised by your All placement providers will provide you with the training you
placement provider. This allows students to have a diverse need to complete the work or research you are tasked with.
experience, which is useful for students who want a taste You will also be assigned a tutor from the RVC who will guide
of a certain sector or type of work, and also provides you through the year, and there are several online tutorials with
you with a fantastic opportunity to gain and develop the placement year leader.
your employability skills and applications to work. This is
encouraged through a focus on self-reflection, which is
supported by the Professionalism module. HOW DO I FIND A PLACEMENT?
You are required to be proactive in searching for, applying to
The second type of placement is a master’s Placement and securing your own placement. Support and guidance
Year. This is taken in your final year of the MSci Applied will be provided in specific timetabled sessions and on a
Biological Research and MSci Applied Bioveterinary dedicated website listing previous placements and current
Research courses and can also be taken with an additional advertisements. Many placements are generated through
sandwich Placement Year between the second and third speculative applications to relevant organisations. Further
years. This master’s placement is dedicated to a research advice is available from the Careers Service.
project which is assessed in several ways, including a
project report and oral exam. This year is particularly If you are unable to find a sandwich or master’s placement year
useful for those who want to find out if research is for them that suits you, you can step off your current course and onto
before committing to a PhD, and allows them to experience the equivalent course without placement. If you are unable to
what it is like to work outside of the RVC, either in industry, find a sandwich placement year, you can choose to move to
research institutes, or charities, for example. MSci Applied Biological Research or MSci Applied Bioveterinary
Research and carry out a master’s placement year, providing
you meet the criteria for progression to the master’s year.
34 CRITICAL-THINKING • PROBLEM-SOLVING • SCIENCE-SHAPING
