Employability

Our graduates have secured employment in a number of companies, with a large number of them having a range of positions to choose from before they graduate. The career destinations of the graduates from July 2012 includes, Airbus, Airinmar, Altair Engineering, ASSystem, BAE Systems, Braendler Engineering, Greene Tweed, Jaguar Landrover, Rolls-Royce, Royal Bank of Scotland and a number of our students have also continued their studies in funded PhD positions. Over 60% of our students have already secured employment before they have even graduated from the aerospace engineering course.

Watch our employability videos to hear top employers explain why they come to Leeds to recruit our graduates.

The Aerospace Engineering Industrial Advisory Board plays an active part in the preparation of our students for employment in the aerospace industry. All of our final year MEng projects are provided and mentored by board members with regular presentations by our students and communications with the board members throughout the year. This provides a unique industry perspective to their projects and prepares them for the transition to employment. The employment opportunities of the students are strengthened by a strong and active alumni association, whose members provide talks to our students throughout the year.

The School’s engagement with industry is evident in the fourth year team projects, which involve working closely with an industrial partner to deliver real engineering solutions. The collaborations ensure that, in addition to developing graduates with excellent technical capabilities, our graduates are well versed in working in a professional environment and are ready to become future leaders in their chosen field.

Our degrees will equip you with the skills you need to succeed in industry, including design, problem solving, engineering ethics, numeracy and analysis skills, together with ‘transferable skills’, such as communication and working as a team.

Faculty Employability Team
Our new Employability Suite, located centrally within the Faculty, houses our dedicated Employability Team, who will provide you with specialist face-to-face support and advice. The Employability Team will help you to find relevant work experience, internships and ‘Year in Industry’ placements, as well as graduate positions. You will also benefit from:

- Timetabled employability sessions (one hour per week)
- Full on-going support during internships and placements
- An International Corporate Leadership Programme module, designed specifically to enhance your placement learning when returning from summer and year placements.

For more information on our approach to graduate employability, please see: www.leeds.ac.uk/employability

Work experience

All of our courses allow you to undertake work experience as part of your degree in the form of a 12 month industrial placement, or shorter project work and summer internships which will help you develop essential employability skills.

Watch our employability videos to hear some of our students talking about their placement experiences.

Summer research placements
Our research groups offer paid summer internships to work on research projects at the end of years 2 and 3. This gives you the opportunity to work with world class academics on ground breaking technologies and allow you to experience the possibilities of following a research career at the end of your degree.

Placements
A placement year option allows you to spend time in industry with one of the hundreds of companies that the University works with each year and can help you gain the skills valued by employers, as well as developing enterprise skills.

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. If your average marks in your first and second years are greater than 60%, you can choose to spend the third year of your MEng studying abroad at a university in Europe, North America or even the Far East. Increasingly valued by employers, this option provides you with a fantastic opportunity to experience life in another country and a different culture. If you have foreign language skills, Erasmus exchanges are available to several European countries.

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 40 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.

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 an unique approach to helping you make the most of the University and prepare for your career from day one. Leeds for Life will help you enhance your employability by highlighting the wide range of co-curricular opportunities on offer from the University and the Students’ Union. You can join
societies, get involved in volunteering and undertake projects in the UK or overseas, or you can attend academic conferences that will help you develop your knowledge and skills. You can also access valuable career insights from our diverse graduate community via our online career networking tool, Leeds Network.

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.