Employability

Career prospects are excellent and range from employment opportunities with manufacturers with in-house design departments to design consultancies. Other employers will be interested in many of the skills and abilities you will develop throughout the course such as your communication skills and your ability to critically analyse and produce creative solutions to problems. This means that you are also well placed to pursue and develop a career in marketing, advertising or management consultancy.

The course has strong links with industry. Academic staff maintain close contact with industrialists to ensure that course materials are always in line with employers’ needs, and some staff are practising Product Designers. Additionally, we have a programme of design seminars in which we include visiting speakers who expose students to current issues in industry. Our industrial links include: AstraZeneca, Minky Homecare, Nokia and SolarAid to name but a few.

This degree will also quip you with the skills you need to succeed in industry, including design, problem solving, numeracy and analysis skills, together with ‘transferable skills’, such as communication and working as a team.

To gain employment in the design industry it is important that you are able to present your work in the form of a portfolio. As a consequence, you will undertake a purpose-built career development module where you will put together and critically appraise what is likely to be your first professional portfolio and CV.

Industrial placement

An optional Industrial Placement Year is also available to you. Working with the University’s Careers Centre, we assist you in identifying and applying for placements. You will normally take a placement year between your second and third year, when you graduate you will have the phrase ‘with Industrial
Placement’ added to your final degree certificate. You do not apply directly for the Industrial Placement scheme; instead you will be given the opportunity to transfer during your second year at Leeds.

International Corporate Leadership Programme (ICLP)
The Schools strong links with industry means that you can apply to undertake a work placement through the University’s prestigious International Corporate Leadership Programme (ICLP), which is a collaboration between the University and a range of internationally based companies.

This programme provides paid for placements and real life projects in companies in the UK and overseas. This gives our students a competitive advantage when starting their career.

The programme involves students, for up to two years, in integrated work placements and company based projects, with both designed to deliver real benefits to the company.

You will benefit from:
• challenging project work experience and work based learning which means you can deliver real benefits to the company
• the real advantage of real work experience giving you an advantage when applying for employment

Many students work part-time, either for the extra money or to gain valuable experience and to improve their future employability. Either way you will find plenty of opportunities through our student employment service - Joblink. This is based on campus in the Students' Union.

Study abroad

The Study Abroad option is available on all of our engineering courses. You may choose to spend a year of your course studying abroad at a university in Europe, North America or even the Far East. You can choose from over 200 institutions from Spain to Singapore. Increasingly valued by employers, this option provides you with a fantastic opportunity to experience life in another country and a different culture. Students who have participated say that they found it a life-changing experience. The Study Abroad programme can help you gain confidence, broaden your horizons and develop skills and experiences which can improve your employability.

If you have foreign language skills, ERASMUS exchanges are available to several European countries. You may be able to take an additional module in your first year to brush up your language skills if you wish to take part in this programme. A second programme, Junior Year Abroad, offers exchanges to the USA, Canada and some Latin American countries. Most Junior Year Abroad exchanges do not require a language other than English. You must, however, achieve a good academic standard to take part in either scheme.

Careers

Our on-campus Careers Centre is one of the largest in the country. It offers an excellent range of services and has a great relationship with graduate recruiters. The Careers Centre is the place to get advice about what to do after university, help with finding work experience, improving your CV and dealing with job applications. The Careers Centre also holds training events and workshops to assist you with your career progression.

The Faculty of Engineering holds an Engineering and Computing Careers Fair, annually, which attracts over 32 graduate recruiters including organisations such as 2e2, AECOM, Atkins, BP, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre, Interfleet Technology Ltd, Network Rail, Procter & Gamble Product Supply, PwC and Unilever Leeds, to name but a few.

The Fair provides you with the chance to explore the opportunities available after graduation. As well as the Engineering Careers Fair, you can explore career opportunities at many other careers fairs and presentations that are organised throughout the year by the University’s Careers Centre. Some of the UK’s top recruiters also visit the Faculty to deliver presentations and workshops specifically for our engineering and computing students.

Leeds for Life

Leeds for Life is a concept which informs the way staff, students, schools, services and alumni work together to ensure you get the most out of university life from day one. Developed in partnership with students themselves, the Leeds for Life website helps identify opportunities to develop your skills, and provides you with an online ‘living CV’ so that you can understand the value of your skills and knowledge and articulate the benefits of your University of Leeds experience.

At the heart of Leeds for Life is personal tutoring where you receive structured one-to-one meetings to support your personal and academic development. This ensures that you not only do well in your degree, but also become a confident, articulate and highly employable graduate.