OVERVIEW OF THE PSYCHOLOGY SANDWICH PLACEMENT YEAR
The Sandwich Year Placement is designed to provide you with an opportunity to gain an extended period of work experience relevant to the discipline of psychology, as part of your degree course. The Sandwich Year Placement is undertaken between Level 5 and Level 6 of the degree. If you didn’t originally register for a Sandwich Year Degree then please don’t worry. All you need to do is successfully confirm your placement (see Placement Confirmation form in the section below) and the Psychology Admin Team will be able to transfer your degree registration to the Sandwich Year Degree.
Placements may be undertaken in any work area which is regarded as suitable for a graduate of psychology. These include professional vocational areas of psychology or related disciplines where graduates of psychology might reasonably be expected to work. Support is provided through the Department of Psychology and through the University Careers and Employability Service, to help you to identify potential placement opportunities. However, responsibility for securing a placement position with an appropriate company or organisation rests with the you.
You are advised to seek placement employment in areas relevant to your career interests after university. For example, students interested in clinical and health psychology might undertake paid or voluntary work within the NHS or relevant support charity, students interested in occupational psychology might undertake human resources and marketing internships, and students interested in educational psychology might seek positions as teaching or learning support assistants.
Sandwich Year work placements should last for a minimum of 30 weeks, and usually take place during the normal academic year period (September to May) although many potential employers who provide sandwich year placements may require a longer period of commitment. For example, some placement organisations run undergraduate internship programmes which require a full-time 12-months commitment (normally July to July). Your overall work commitment will be set by your placement provider. If the placement is unpaid, then you should only be expected by your placement provider to work for 3 - 4 days per week. This is to provide you with time to undertake some paid work too.
In order to successfully complete the Sandwich Year Placement, you will be assessed on written work and you will provide specific documentation that describes and evaluates the employment you have undertaken, your reflection on the company or organisation for which you have worked, and your overall performance during the work placement. You will also be required to give an oral presentation following the completion of the sandwich year.
You will be provided with a full Sandwich Year Placement Handbook, which includes full details of the assessment, once you start your placement.
AIMS OF THE SANDWICH YEAR PLACEMENT
To develop competences relevant to the student's future employability through the opportunity to work with professionals in psychology-related work environments.
To provide students with experience of work contexts outside of their academic course including different global, international, cultural, and business / organisational perspectives.
To develop positive relationships with other colleagues and supervisors in the workplace.
To enable students to develop a sense of confidence and maturity derived through external work experience.
If you have any questions at all then please contact julie.udell@port.ac.uk for more information :)
