Working with our students
Image taken on location by kind permission of Siemens
Ben Swarbrick and Philippe Hamam began their undergraduate placement at Siemens in July 2010.
By working in a supportive environment and benefitting from close liaison with other engineers, Ben and Phillipe have gained invaluable business and technical skills by working "hands-on" in software, hardware and testing projects.
Calling all companies!
Our graduates have a qualification you can trust. All the undergraduates in our School are working towards a degree fully accredited by at least one of four Institutions: The IET, The Royal Aeronautical Society, The Institute of Measurement and Control and The Energy Institute.
This may partly explain why our graduates are amongst the most sought after in the UK: in the Times Good University Guide 2010 we were ranked number one in the UK for graduate prospects. But it is not the whole story. The strong tradition of working with industry that permeates Loughborough University enriches the education our students receive and ensures that the skills and knowledge they are developing are relevant and up-to-date.
How do outside organisations work with students?
Working with industry is not something that just happens. It is very important to us and we are always ready to welcome ideas from organisations of all sorts, whether new partners or old friends. There are several established ways to get involved with our students and we believe all of them are happily win-win-win: for the students, the department and the business.
Industrial placements
This is probably the most familiar option. Most of our students undertake a one-year
industrial placement, or ‘sandwich year’ so we are always in need of high-quality relevant placements. If you are considering offering a placement, please contact
our Industrial Liaison Tutor, Bill Gabb, who will explain what is required and the support your company will receive. Alternatively, our Careers and Employability Service has general information for companies on the placement process.
Each autumn at the start of term, we hold a placement fair which is free for companies to attend. If you would like to attend please contact us.
If you have never offered placements before, these case studies will give you an idea of what our students do. Each one is quite different:
- Ben Gray at Siemens
- Greg Slee at Triumph Motorcycles
- Dhaval Hathalia at BVT Surface Fleet
- John Cunningham at Northen Ireland Electricity
- Blago Mihaylov at BAE Systems
- Mark Rogers at dstl
- Gaukhar Massabayeva at Microsoft
- Tom Clark at Aero Engine Controls
Sponsorship
Companies often offer sponsorship to undergraduates in their final year/s, especially following a particularly positive placement experience. This is entirely independent of the university.
However, companies also choose to sponsor programmes with which they wish to be associated and offer support. Sponsoring a programme gives substantial benefits without committing to individual students. It raises the company profile amongst a group of undergraduates with a target skillset and also to all UCAS applicants who see a company logo on our website and in our prospectus. The university uses the sponsorship to enrich the programme beyond normal levels and often offers the sponsor a seat on the programme's steering group. The chance to get involved with the direction, deveopment and delivery of the sponsored programme may also be possible.
Some companies sponsor annual prizes to students for work with especial relevance to their own domain.
If you are interested in sponsoring our School in this way please contact Amanda Pearce to discuss the possibilities.
Guest lectures
We are always keen to get an industry perspective on how educational theory relates to current day practice. Guest lectures are a good way to showcase your company’s cutting edge practices to a target undergraduate group, who are either studying for a related degree or a particular module.