5 things you need to know before you opt for a placement year in 2022

What is a Placement Year?

A Placement year is also called sandwich year, and it allows international students to spend up to 1 year of their master’s or undergraduate program apart from the academic year.

If you are opting for a master you will have two choices to apply for, either a one-year master program where your visa will be valid for 16 months or 28 months. It entirely depends upon when you apply for your visa application. You get extra 4 months in your BRP.

I know it sounds fantastic to us as it will give us an extra year to work full time and gain some experience and monies. But it’s not as easy as its sound. I will explain below in 5 points which will clear most of your doubts.

1) Is it worth paying 624 pounds for the placement year?

To apply for a placement year, you need to pay IHS when filling out a VFS appointment. If you are travelling with the dependents, you need to pay the same amount.

For example, if you fly with your partner and kid, the IHS fees will be 624*3 = 1872 GBP.

So you are paying a considerable amount for the year you don’t know that you will be able to get it or not.

2) What is the eligibility for a placement year?

So once we got the visa for the placement year, it will be up to the university placement cell if they are going to accept it or not at the end of your academic year.

They will first ask you to find a Fixed term contract job for a minimum of 9-12 months. You need to understand that most of the jobs contracts in the UK are permanent, temporary and zero hour.

A permanent contract is where a company will hire you indefinitely until the employee or employer choose to end it. You will be on probation for 3 or 6 months, and once you pass it, you are a permanent employee, and you got rights.

The temporary contract is where there is no end date and you are hired for a short time.

Zero hour contract means the employer is not obliged to give any fixed working hours, and the employee is not obliged to accept any offer. It is also known as a casual contract. So you will have work only when an employer needs it.

It’s not impossible to get FTC, but it’s very hard. Most employers would like to offer temporary or permanent employment contracts because they can be sure if you are the right person of work in your probation period.

One more thing you have to be sure that the job needs to be related to your course. It means if you are doing Graduation in Business management, then your profile should be in Trainee Manager, Assistant Manager etc. It can’t be a chef or driver.

You will be shocked to hear that only 8.3% of students get a placement as per the UK Government website.

So all other people who apply for placement dont get it actually and lose their IHS fees. So you have to think before you opt-in for a placement year.

3) More documents and documents.

Once you got an FTC and luckily in your field, the university will ask you to get filled Covid measure forms, company safety measure forms and so on from the company.

It’s challenging to get all of these forms filled from the companies as they have more important stuff to do. You will be lucky if you get these from the company.

4) some more conditions 🙁

Let’s rewind and go back to the results, so if you fail in any of your assignments, you won’t be eligible to apply for placement.

It’s still tricky. Some universities give you a chance to retake and apply for placement but not with every university.

Students who want to opt into a sandwich year between their studies are not eligible if they fail in any assignment. You will be allowed to retake but will miss the placement chance.

So if you are looking for an answer that should I go with a sandwich year or not?

You need to think and strategise before you opt-in that as it includes a cost, and if you are coming with your dependents, it will increase more.

5) What happens if you are not able to secure placement?

University will send an email to the home office to change your visa duration to one year. So if you are coming for September intake 2021 and opt-in for a placement year, you will receive a BRP until January 2024.

So once the university sends an email to the home office, your visa will be valid until January 2023. You will have four months to apply for PSW after your graduation.

You will have to pay around 2000 GBP for two years which will include IHS and Visa fees. So if you have two dependents, then it will be around £6000.

This is why it’s expensive to live in the UK, but this is a country to earn a lot of money for the people who have skills.

I am sure your consultant or agent didn’t tell you all these points because they get commission even from your placement fees.