Enhance your Employability

A placement year is an excellent opportunity to gain invaluable work experience, either within an area that is directly related to your degree programme or potential career path. You can apply what you have learnt at university to develop essential skills whilst working alongside industry professionals. Our successful placement programme will provide you with hands-on experiences and a range of transferable skills required in industry. This will strengthen your employability and help you to stand out when you apply for jobs.

The Politics and International Relations Department’s dedicated Placement Coordinator will guide you through the career planning process and support you in identifying organisations suited to your individual career interests; reviewing your CV and application forms; building your confidence for interviews, tests and assessment centres; and receiving feedback. During your placement you will be supported to ensure you get the best experience from your year in industry.

You will also be able to take advantage of the support offered through the University’s Careers & Employability Service where you can participate in telephone and mock interviews and psychometric assessments (ability tests), to ensure that you are thoroughly prepared for the application process.

In addition, we encourage our students to develop their CV and network with professionals through various University schemes such as: 

• RED Award 
• Star Mentoring 
• Thrive Mentoring 
• The Reading Internship Scheme 
• The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) 
• Volunteering

We have excellent links with industry, and you will have the opportunity to undertake work placements and to liaise with employers during your studies. The diversity of employers we work with and our stature in the world of politics and international relations means that we can help you find placements for a variety of career paths.

Some of our placement providers include: 

• Oracle 
• Lenovo 
• Bosche 
• Microsoft 
• The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) 
• Emperor 
• Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce
• Health Education England 

Many of our students are offered jobs from their placement providers once they have completed their placement.

The Department of Politics and International Relations courses are designed to develop your future career prospects by embedding essential employability skills within modules, such as: 

• Utilising essential tools to efficiently manage your time and prioritise workload 
• Through participating in the Model United Nations you will develop your interpersonal, debating, teamwork and public speaking skills 
• Gaining a taste of the different opportunities available for you after graduation through our regular series of events with a range of visiting speakers
• Establishing valuable knowledge and learn to apply it using skills of analysis and problem solving, communication and presentation skills 
• Developing your written skills through meaningful reports and essays 
• Working effectively in groups to create a collective piece of writing or a presentation 

The Department also offers two optional modules where you can gain desirable work experience through short-term placements. 

• A Part 2 module in which students gain two weeks’ work experience within a Member of Parliament’s offices or with a local charity or non-profit organisation. 

• An opportunity to gain a breadth of industry experience with professional organisation over a summer vacation; this earns academic credit and is taken in place of a taught module.

"The placement opportunity is a rare experience providing you with an incredibly expansive view of real-world situations, a scope of opportunities for the future and will help you in delivering proper solutions. I undertook my placement year at FORCYD B.V, a forensic investigation company specialising in eDiscovery, cyber forensics and document review in Amsterdam as a junior consultant. I was given major support during the application processes via regular CV/Cover letter workshops and individual mock interviews with the department staff which greatly helped my preparation for upcoming interviews."

– Enrico Scaffidi-Argentina BA International Relations and Economics with Placement Year