Placement year abroad

A placement year abroad will count as part of your degree where you work in an organisation for an agreed amount of time. Similar to a year abroad, there are fees for a placement year abroad depending on your year of entry.  You can check with the placement team about fees for your year of entry.

Duration: whole academic year.

Location: variety of locations around the world. You're responsible for finding your own placement but don’t worry, plenty of help is available.

Departure date: usually in September or October.

Deadline: contact your placement team as soon as possible.

Eligibility

Start by checking with your faculty placement officer as to whether a work placement could be a formally assessed and accredited part of your degree (your personal tutor will be able to put you in touch with the right person). If you’re an undergraduate student, an average first-year mark of at least 50 is normally required. You will also need to change your degree to add the placement year – to allow you to undertake your placement in your third year.

Funding

If you're undertaking a work placement abroad you may be eligible for funding such as Erasmus+ or Turing Scheme funding.  Please note that funding is not guaranteed and should be viewed as an additional support to your time abroad.  In all cases Essex Abroad will be in touch if you are eligible with directions on how to apply and access the funding.  You can find out more about our funding from Essex Abroad on our funding and finance webpages.

Further details and how to apply

Each faculty has got a placement team to support you with finding, applying for and successfully completing your placement year. Please email them as soon as possible once you decided to do a placement year.

• Faculty of Arts and Humanities

• Faculty of Science and Health

• Faculty of Social Sciences

For more information visit the work placement webpages or email the placements team via placements@essex.ac.uk

About the assistantship

A British Council Assistantship is a great way to improve a foreign language, gain intercultural competencies and add an international dimension to your Essex degree.

Duration: whole academic year.

Location: variety of locations around the world.

Departure date: usually in September or October.

Deadline: Applications close 01 February.  You will still need to apply for your time abroad via Essex Abroad.

Eligibility: There have been changes to the eligibility for the programme. You can find the most recent information about the programme on the British Council webpages.

The role

• Support the teaching of English in a classroom setting (this can be a school or a university)
• Plan activities to facilitate and encourage English learning 
• Educate locals on British culture

With a range of destinations to choose from, this is a wonderful opportunity to gain a professional experience, transferable interpersonal and organisation skills, cultural awareness and exposure to working abroad. This could be a more financially accessible option as during this program Language Assistants may have the opportunity to earn a salary.

If you're placed in a European country, you may also be eligible for an Erasmus+ grant in addition to any remuneration provided by the host institution.  Please note that Erasmus funding (or any Essex Abroad funding) is an additional support to your time abroad and is never guaranteed.  You should therefore budget to cover your living costs and time abroad outside of any funding.  The current Erasmus grant rates range from €470-520 per month depending on the country. Find out more about funding opportunities from Essex Abroad.

Essex Abroad is proud to support this program and has successfully sent many students overseas to be British Council Language Assistants in recent years.

Eligibility

As long as you're enrolled onto the degree variant '(Including Year Abroad)' you're eligible for this program, regardless of your discipline. To join this program, you'll need to have an average first year mark of 50% or above and pass all second year modules on first attempt. Further details and how to apply can be found on the British Council website.

Get in touch

If you're interested in this program or have any questions about the British Council Teaching Assistantship, please feel free to email:

• Teresa Torres, British Council Language Assistantship co-ordinator

• Essex Abroad team

You can also find out more about what it is like to work abroad as a Language Assistant in this blog (written by a third party), by reading a article written by a previous Essex student on their application tips (written in Spanish), or by reading this blog from Jacob, who taught in Spain.

We've partnered with THM to launch a new study exchange and internship programme run over two semesters. The first is spent studying a variety of modules and the second is spent working in a local company or within the University.

This is an excellent opportunity that allows you to both study and complete a work placement during your year abroad. The programme consists of two semesters:

• the first is spent studying variety of modules
• the second is spent working in a local company or within the University

Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM)

The Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) and Essex are pleased to offer exchange / internship programme in the field of computer science, informatics, electronic engineering or business studies. The programme will cover two semesters at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) in Germany, making it a full academic year programme.

• Duration: whole academic year.
• Location: Germany, Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) and local company in Mittelhessen.

Eligibility

This programme is for computer science, informatics, electronic engineering or business studies students only. You need to be enrolled on a year abroad programme in order to take part in this opportunity.

Important deadline

If you apply for the placement programme EIEM there is an earlier deadline (usually around end of March). You will need to be aware of this and this may close before you are nominated to THM.

Summer internship opportunity

THM also offer a summer internship for our students. Find out more on our exchange finder.