Students are responsible for finding their placements. Advice and help are available, both in the Department and from the Imperial College Careers Service.  You will also find some information here on how to find placements. Opportunities offered directly to the Department will be advertised to students by email.  

• To help you understand more about the placement experience, we have asked students to write about their placement experiences to help you in your placement search. These studies can be found on the course page on Blackboard.

• Details of Industrial Placement opportunities offered to Department of Electrical Engineering students can be viewed on InPlace: https://icl-stu-uk.inplacesoftware.com/home.

   Log in using your usual College login.

• All placements must be approved by the Department.  
• Placements run for 6 months from April to September 2023. They should last for a minimum of 22 weeks excluding annual leave. It is expected that students on a placement will be able to take “leave” of 15 working days during the 6 months, making the placement a total of 25 weeks.

• Work undertaken during the industrial placement must be relevant to the degree programme being followed. The content must be challenging and allow the student to demonstrate application of engineering knowledge and skills to a technical problem. There is no restriction on the sector of the economy provided the first criteria is met. Thus, work in the voluntary sector (such as Engineers without Borders, e.quinox or RNIB) could qualify. Work in a technical function of the finance industry such as designing databases would qualify, but routine IT support would not. MEng with Management students can work on business studies related topics such as Project Management or Financial Management. You will also find some information here on how to find placements.

Professional conduct

Please note that declining a placement once accepted is deemed unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour which damages the College's reputation.  Behaviour of this kind will normally result in the student failing the module.

How to submit a self-placement

When you receive an offer from a company you will need to submit a self-placement on InPlace for us to approve.  Once you’re on InPlace you will need to click on the “Self-Placement” link, which should look like this:

•  When you submit your self-placement you must provide a detailed description of the project you will be doing and the supervision you will receive from the company. You must also upload the “Placement Provider Form” and the “Industrial Placement Advert Proforma”, which must be fully completed with all information filled out. Please note that placements will not be approved without a thorough project description.  It is your responsibility to work with your proposed employer to provide this information.
• The placement provider form must be filled out by your employer because it contains important information regarding your supervision and safety whilst on the placement.  It might also be useful to send your employer a copy of the College Placement Learning Policy and to be clear about any contractual and confidentiality arrangements. Once it has been filled out by your employer you can attach it to your InPlace record.

• When this is completed you must attach all relevant documents to your  inplace website record. Once we receive the submission on InPlace we will review it and will let you know whether we can approve it.

• The deadline for approval of your placement is Monday 27 February 2023. 

Important: Please ensure that your placements have been checked and approved by us before you sign any contracts. The deadline above is for final approval, so please submit your placement to InPlace in advance of the deadline so that we have time to review it. After the deadline has passed your placement should be finalised so you won’t be able to switch to a different placement after the deadline

You can access InPlace here: https://www.inplace.imperial.ac.uk/.

• Find a placement and seek approval: September – February    
• Meet Imperial mentor to agree objectives: 
• On placement: April – September
• Return to final year of studies: October

Industrial placements will be supervised by a member of staff from the company, with additional mentoring from academic staff from Imperial. Imperial staff will be involved in agreeing project objectives and in assessment. In addition, we will arrange contact between mentors and students during the project including a visit from a member of academic staff in July.

Students will be required to keep a weekly engineering log-book of their activity which will be signed off along with the project report at the end of the placement.  Where a log-book is not appropriate some other journal should be recorded. 

Please go to the module page on Blackboard to view full list of documents and procedures for the placements. 

Industrial placement students are usually paid for their work, although the College does not stipulate a rate of pay.  Other statutory terms and conditions will also apply, including holiday leave allowance.  These conditions will be part of the contract of employment or appointment letter agreed between the company and their employee, i.e. the Student.

It is expected that students on a placement will be able to take “leave” of 15 working days during the 6 months.

Marks for the Industrial Placement are reviewed at the September meeting of the Board of Examiners at the end of your third year. 

Some of the partner universities in the year abroad scheme begin their academic year in September or even late August i.e. just before a typical 6-month industrial placement would finish.

If you are taking the Year Abroad route you will need to resolve the conflict yourself if it arises by either not taking the industrial placement option, or by choosing a university abroad with a later start. Placements shorter than 22 weeks will not be approved. 

The successes and challenges of my work placement - Katarzyna Zukowska

 “Having just finished my placement, I have a lot of thoughts on what met my expectations and where I could do better during that time. As part of my Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree, I had an opportunity to do a six-month internship over the last term of my third year and the summer. Now that I’m going into my fourth and final year of study, I can fully recognise just how much it has shaped my career goals.”  Read more at: https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/student-blogs/author/katarzyna/