Industrial experience

Many companies offer spring week and insight day opportunities around spring time, allowing you to undergo a placement lasting from a day to a week. They can include campus visits, insight days and short-term office placements, through which you can work on real life projects, receiving mentoring and training from other professionals.

Summer internships are primarily geared towards penultimate-year students and present the opportunity of a temporary position with a business, through which you'll receive on-the-job training and your potential for working for said company will be assessed. There are a few opportunities also open for students in their first year of study.

Internships typically last six to ten weeks, during which you'll gain practical knowledge of the job sector and will become equipped with transferable skills also applicable to your academic studies. You can find out more through our Careers Service pages or you can speak to a careers consultant directly in the Department of Chemistry.

Volunteering is an excellent way of learning new skills and enhancing your CV while also making a difference to either the environment or the people in your community.

There are hundreds of groups and organisations that require help, but opportunities specifically relevant to chemistry include the Department's outreach activity, the Museum of Science and Industry and STEMNET.

If you are an undergraduate student interested in the research conducted within the Department of Chemistry, a summer studentship is an activity you may potentially undertake. You'll be able to conduct research in a field of your interest and gain practical knowledge about how to structure your research and develop hypotheses.

There is no official programme for these opportunities and rarely a set application process. You'll have to contact the staff conducting the research in which you are interested; you can start by looking into the particular research that the Department of Chemistry conducts.

Summer research programmes provide the opportunity to engage in research offered by foreign universities, allowing you to enhance your research and analytical skills in an international context.