Placement Year

What is a Placement Year?

For a placement year, students spend a minimum of 40 weeks working for an organisation either in the UK or internationally. Anthropology students at Durham have the opportunity to either do one placement for the entirety of the year or up to three smaller placements.

Your Placement Year is between your 2nd and 3rd year and you only need to make a decision to do a placement when you are at University. We move you across to the “with Placement Year” variant of your Anthropology degree when you have successfully secured a role.

What Placements are Available?

One of the most liberating aspects of doing a placement year with Anthropology at Durham is that it doesn’t have to be related to your degree, leaving you free to pursue a placement in any sector that you are interested in. Whether you’re interested in policy, the third sector, PR, marketing, or conservation and sustainability, a placement year allows you to pursue your academic or long-term career goals.

Anthropology graduates pursue a huge range of careers in a variety of roles due to the blend of social, cultural and evolutionary human study. A placement year offers a brilliant opportunity to transfer your knowledge and skills from your degree into a professional context.

Previous placements have included: working in conservation in protected wildlife reserves in the UK, in PR for major fixtures of the fashion industry, in community relations for HIV/AIDS research, or heading activism campaigns for major UK petition websites. There are also roles advertised in government, working as a Parliamentary Assistant, using your research skills for the Office of National Statistics as well as Professional Service, consultancy and retail firms.

How do I secure a placement?

You have a dedicated Faculty Placement Manager who will support you in your placement search through:

• 1:1 appointments
• application checks
• mock interviews
• weekly newsletter which has placement vacancies and resources to help you with your search

Alongside this, the Faculty Placement Team hosts regular events with students and employers. These have included employer panels with key employers across multiple sectors, LinkedIn and networking workshops, panels with current or returned placement year students, and a Placement showcase, featuring providers such as Apple, Warner Bros, and British Airways.

The Careers and Enterprise Centre can also provide you with support that will help you to secure a placement. From CV Seminars to a range of sector specific resources and employer presentations, workshops and fairs to give you exposure to a range of organisations on campus and virtually. Their Develop Yourself page contains additional information about placements.

Download the full Placement Years: A complete guide for students (pdf 900kb)

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