Work with Us

The University of Suffolk provides a wide variety of opportunities for organisations to connect with our fantastic students and graduates. The Careers, Employability and Enterprise Team play a key part in this, and can support your business in a variety of ways.

The team are part of the Business Engagement, Careers and Employability (BECE) Directorate, and accessing our student and graduate talent is just one way we can support you as the University of Suffolk. There are many other opportunities to work with the wider University to the advantage of your business, from meeting room hire and CPD/short courses, through to consultancy and collaborative research, plus much more in between. To explore the possibilities, please visit Working with Business, or contact the team.

Our free to use job board is hosted within Handshake our career development hub, a one-stop shop accessible to all students and graduates at the University of Suffolk. Creating an account is a quick and easy process, and allows you to upload opportunities throughout the year. Roles that can be advertised included part-time/casual work, paid internships, volunteering opportunities, paid placement years, and graduate positions.

To register your organisation, and start promoting your opportunities, please visit the Employer Terms and Conditions, and then create an account.

If you are an existing user, you can log-in here.    

We know that work experience is an essential part of the University journey, and paid internships can provide a fantastic source of expertise into your business.

We know that internships may be new to many employers, so we are here to help you think about how they may work within your organisation. Please get in touch on connect@uos.ac.uk and we will be very happy to help.

Most courses offer students the opportunity to pursue a work placement through a variety of formats. Placement lengths and requirements vary from 100 hours to a 1-year sandwich placement across Schools and courses. If you’d like to explore the possibilities, please contact us on careers@uos.ac.uk and we will connect you with the correct individual to explore this further.

Students on the following courses are currently able to undertake a sandwich placement (between their 2nd and final year):

  • BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences
  • BA (Hons) Business Management
  • BSc (Hons) Computing
  • BSc (Hons) Criminology
  • BSc (Hons) Criminology and Sociology
  • BA (Hons) English
  • BA (Hons) Event and Marketing Management
  • BA (Hons) Event and Tourism Management
  • BA (Hons) Games Design
  • BSc (Hons) Games Programming
  • LLB (Hons) Law
  • LLB (Hons) Law with Criminology
  • LLB (Hons) Law with Politics
  • BA (Hons) Marketing Management
  • BA (Hons) Politics
  • BA (Hons) Politics and History
  • BA (Hons) Politics and Sociology
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology and Criminology
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology and Sociology
  • BSc (Hons) Sociology
  • BSc (Hons) Wildlife, Ecology and Conservation Science

Please note that this information is up to date at point of publication, but changes can occur. For the most up to date information on the courses that we offer, and which provide students with sandwich placement options, please visit the Definitive Course Record (DCR).

If you would like to find out more about courses that provide shorter placements, please email the Careers team and we will be very happy to discuss this in further detail.

A wide selection of activities and events are held throughout the year to enable you to connect with students. Organisations and alumni covered lots of different topics to help attendees explore different routes into a sector or industry, provide insights into available opportunities, and inspire their future career plans. We offer our face to face events, offering these alongside online webinars and workshops, ensuring that we maintain the accessibility that hybrid delivery offers to students and employers alike. 

Our Careers Fairs and events are fantastic opportunities to network with our diverse and high calibre students, promote your vacancies and build brand awareness. 

Please join us at the Graduate Jobs Fair: 12th March 2024, 12-2pm.”

What are the benefits of attending the Suffolk Careers Fair? 

  • The University of Suffolk has climbed 20 positions in the latest Complete University Guide league tables. It is the latest in a remarkable upward trend for the University, which soared by 26 places in last year’s rankings. 
  • The University of Suffolk came 5th in the Career Prospects category in the WhatUni Student Choice awards, this is 8 places higher than we were last year! 

Please click here to register for the events and fairs. 

In addition to the confirmed events, there are many options for organisations to consider, and we are keen to maintain the flexible delivery modes developed in response to our recent pandemic experience. We have included a few suggestions below, but are always open to new ideas and opportunities:

  • Hold a workshop or webinar to provide insights into your organisation, and inspire our students to consider your organisation as an employer of choice.
  • Run an interactive session focusing on a particular topic, skill or area – this could be anything from team working skills or resilience, to providing CV, LinkedIn and/or interview insights and tips, or even a mock assessment centre.
  • Offer 1:1 bookable slots for students to speak directly to you and your team about your organisation, opportunities, and how they can stand out from the crowd.
  • Have a face-to-face presence on campus in Ipswich to speak directly to students and the University community, either as part of a Careers Fair/Marketplace or a one-off during the year.
  • Record an insight into your organisation, roles and/or sector that can be uploaded to our virtual Careers space for students to access over the coming months.
  • Provide lunch as part of a lunchtime meet and greet.

Find out more email connect@uos.ac.uk

To discuss the options in more detail, please get in touch with us via connect@uos.ac.uk or 01473 338840 so we can explore this further. 

Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship are embedded throughout University of Suffolk degrees. Many courses will bring in a variety of guest speakers and organisations to engage creatively with their students, perhaps by offering visits or setting live briefs that enable students to apply their theoretical learning to practical scenarios. Opportunities change year on year as we continually develop, so please contact us on careers@uos.ac.uk to discuss in further detail.

A full list of current courses offered by the University of Suffolk can be found on our Definitive Course Record (DCR)

What is Build Your Future? 

Build Your Future is the University of Suffolk’s new scheme providing enhanced Careers, Employability and Enterprise support for students who are underrepresented in Higher Education. This includes students who:

  • have a disability or long-term health condition, including mental health
  • are neurodivergent
  • are care experienced or estranged from parents 
  • are first in their family to go to university (excluding siblings)
  • are from a home postcode area where participation in Higher Education is low.

The aim of the scheme is to support these students to enhance their employability and future career development by providing tailored support and access to opportunities that they may previously not have had the means or confidence to participate in. 

How can you get involved? 

As part of the scheme, we are really keen to partner with local employers to enhance our programme of support. Many of the students joining the scheme won’t have had the opportunity to experience different work environments through employer visits, work placements, volunteering or work shadowing, for example. Consequently, they will have less insight and less confidence when facing the transition into future employment. Our aim is to offer a range of supported opportunities to help address these barriers. 

Employers can support the scheme in a variety of ways, such as hosting visits to their place of work, delivering talks about their organisation/sector or supporting sessions on workplace skills. We are very much open to suggestions on how we can work together to develop a skilled and confident workforce. There is no financial commitment and the amount of time you can offer is completely flexible.  

Our partnership with Hays, a multinational recruitment agency with offices in Ipswich, started in June 2023 and has already had a huge impact on our delivery of Careers and Employability skills for Business and Technology students.

Find out more and read feedback from our students.