5 reasons to do a sandwich course at university

1. Experience is excellent

Whether you spend your year out in one role that you realise is exactly what you want to do or flitting between roles to get a taste of all your different options, any work experience is good work experience.

Even if you decide you don’t want to work in that particular role post-uni, just being in a real-life working environment will help you develop transferable skills that you can take with you into any career you choose.

2. Helps you decide on your future career

Sandwich courses offer the opportunity to see your degree being put in to practice, as well as allowing you to identify which aspects of your prospective industry you want to be a part of.

You may spend some time in an initially interesting role and quickly realise your skills lie elsewhere. That's actually great news – it's much better to find this out on your placement rather than making the discovery after you start your first full-time permanent job.

3. Networking is so important

Many gradate positions are filled by people who have already had work experience with the company. As well as this, plenty of jobs aren’t actually advertised externally. So how do people hear about them? Networking!

Now is the time to be making connections. If there aren’t any jobs going at the company you complete your placement at, the likelihood is they will know of some elsewhere, and would be happy to put you forward for them.

4. Opportunity to go abroad

There is never a better opportunity to work abroad than on your sandwich year, while you have limited responsibility and a whole year to get some amazing experience under your belt. Many universities have contacts that can arrange an international work placement for you, but if not there are numerous organisations dedicated to helping students find relevant work experience overseas.

5. Chances to utilise new skills 

By third year you will undoubtedly have had the usual “what can I actually do with my degree” panic, and a sandwich year can show you that actually, you can do loads of different things with the talents you have accrued throughout your time at university. You get to spend a year putting theory into practice and can return to final year full of new found confirmation that what you are studying is what you need to further your career.

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