Industrial placement year
All Informatics bachelor's degrees have an optional industrial placement year assessed as an integral part of the course, leading to the award 'BSc/BA X (with an Industrial Placement Year)'. The placement year is taken after the 2nd year and before the final year of the course.
There are many advantages to doing a placement year, including: consolidation of your academic learning; new or enhanced professional and intellectual skills; increased personal effectiveness and confidence; greater career awareness; and professional work experience to increase your attractiveness to future employers.
We are in contact with a large number of companies in the software development, digital media, and IT sectors, ranging from international blue-chip companies to smaller specialist companies — based in Brighton, the south east, London and the rest of the UK. We have a large database of placement opportunities, run an eight-week Placement Preparation Programme, and provide individual support to give you the best chance of finding the right placement for you.
Jozef Stremen (BSc Computing and Artificial Intelligence) talks about his placement year at IBM:
Career-related summer internships
Vacation work is not just about making money. Any kind of work experience says something about you as a person and potential employee, and will enhance your future employment prospects. Career-related vacation work does the same, only more so. In addition, it offers other advantages such as finding out whether you really like a particular kind of work or company before you graduate.
Ali Bergstrom-Allen
Ali Bergstrom-Allen took a vacation job as a computer games tester for some career-related experience and extra cash — and ended up winning the national title of Student Employee of the Year. Ali was nominated by her employer, Babel Media Ltd, who provide specialist services to the games and interactive industries. Ali started her degree in the Department of Informatics without any previous computing experience, having taken music and theatre studies and medieval studies at A-level. "It was a daunting prospect and it's been hard work but I'm really enjoying it. Working at Babel has helped me get more out of my course," says Ali.
Ali Bergstrom-Allen
BSc Multimedia and Digital Systems
Naomi Frankel
Finalist in a competition to find Sussex’s most enterprising student, Naomi Frankel was offered a job with the firm that proposed her for the award, Academy Internet. Naomi spent a summer vacation working on an e-learning programming project for the Brighton-based firm as part of STEP, a long running student and graduate internship programme.
Naomi Frankel
BSc Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence