What about students who can’t take a placement year?

Placement years can promote social mobility and improve graduate employment outcomes. Students who take one are more likely to gain employment after university than peers who do not. Access, however, is uneven and becoming more difficult. Application numbers for undergraduate placements rose 15 per cent this year, and on average employers now receive more than 100 applications for every placement role, the Institute of Student Employers Student Recruitment Report 2026 shows.

Recruitment processes for placements can favour students with stronger academic records, disadvantaging those with lower grades who often have the most to gain. Students working hardest to keep up with their studies, often alongside paid jobs, may also have the least time for applications and interviews.

The students least able to take a placement year are often those it would help most, yet many have already gained valuable work experience through part-time work or caring responsibilities. What they often lack is support presenting that experience as a coherent employability story.

What students told us

Opting out of a placement year is rarely because of a lack of ambition, our research with final-year business students at a post-92 university tells us. Students balance part-time jobs, caring for family members and the cost of moving to a new city. Many were told that “everyone should apply”, even when they were unlikely to secure an offer. Some felt that talks by returning placement students did not reflect them or the wider cohort, leaving them feeling placements were not for “people like me”. Blanket messaging about the importance of a 12-month placement can therefore demotivate students, and some students we spoke to started ignoring careers emails altogether. Others stepped back after repeated rejections, although many said they would have tried a summer or part-time placement if the option had been available.

Change the message, not the volume

Placements are often presented as the gold standard and the only route to success, so students who cannot pursue these opportunities might feel like they are doing something wrong by not jumping at the opportunity. A few changes can help:

• Present the placement year as one option among several. Name the alternatives, such as summer internships, part-time roles and running a business, ensuring they suit students who commute, have caring responsibilities or cannot give up paid work.
• Be honest upfront about the effort it takes to secure a placement. Tell students that a typical post attracts more than 100 applications, and that rejections are part of the process, rather than a sign of failure.
• Be clear about what employers look for. Some students arrive at university believing their degree alone will secure a graduate job, when what makes an application stand out is an explanation of what they have done beyond it.
• Choose speakers and case studies that reflect your whole cohort, including students who kept a part-time job, cared for family or took a summer placement during their studies.

Offer formats students can take up

Most barriers students described were practical, such as finances, travel and caring responsibilities. Reduce these by asking the employers you work with whether a role could run over the summer, alongside study two days a week or remotely, and look for opportunities close to students to avoid the need for relocation. Where your programme structure allows, give these shorter placements formal credit so they carry real weight on a transcript.

Turn existing experience into an employability story

A student who handles complaints on a Saturday shift can evidence the ability to resolve conflict under pressure, but few will describe it that way unprompted. One student we spoke to had managed small teams in a part-time retail job but felt that the university did not count this as authentic career development. First-generation students and others without family or professional networks to guide them need opportunities to practise explaining how such experiences prepare them for the workplace. 

• Spotlight guide: Get your students workplace-ready
• Under the waterline: making skills visible to students
• Tried and tested ways to teach your students soft skills

Let students draw on part-time work or caring roles in reflective assignments and employability modules and count this experience towards any careers award your institution runs. Run short workshops in which students list three problems they solved during a recent work week and match each to a skill named in real graduate job adverts, and let them practise expressing their experience during mock interviews.

Help students navigate rejection

Rejection fatigue builds gradually and students tend to blame themselves. As one student told us, “After 30 rejections, I questioned whether I could continue.” 

• Where your systems allow, track application numbers and contact students after a run of rejections to discuss next steps, rather than provide another list of vacancies.
• Prepare students for silence as well as rejection. Many employers never reply, and students told us this was more disheartening than a rejection, so explain early that no response is common and not personal.
• Make it clear that choosing not to apply is a legitimate decision, and that careers support remains open to them whatever they decide.

University cohorts are changing, with more students now combining study with paid work and caring responsibilities, so support built around a single full-year placement will suit fewer learners each year.

We must understand what is stopping each student before deciding what support they need and recognise that a decision not to take a placement year does not signal a lack of drive. Universities that pair the traditional year in industry with flexible formats and recognition of existing experience can create opportunities for the students who need them most.

Danny Buckley is director of studies for executive and professional education at Loughborough Business School; Natalia Vershinina is deputy director of research at Audencia Business School; Julia Cook is deputy dean of Leicester Castle Business School.

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