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Professional Training Year

How about the unique chance to spend a year working at Europe's leading satellite maker, at international companies like IBM or BAe systems, or to do research on cancer treatment in sunny Florida - as part of your Physics degree? You will be paid as you gain valuable experience. It may sound too good to be true - but our Physics students regularly find themselves in these various exciting locations on their optional year of Professional Training.

All our BSc students have the option of a Professional Training Year. This is year off campus between the 2nd and 3rd years of study. Most commonly, placements are in UK companies, although a number of students have worked in government labs, and overseas.

Find out what students have to say about their professional training year in the profiles below:

We have an introduction, to the University of Surrey's Professional Training Year, and also a guide to how it works, and its history..

Where do our students go for their Professional Training Year?

In the academic year 2010/2011 we placed 16 BSc students. They worked at:

  • EDF Energy
  • Merck Chemicals (2 students)
  • Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
  • National Air Traffic Services (NATS) (2 students, there is a brief profile of one student)
  • Xerox
  • Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB)
  • Royal Surrey County Hospital (2 students)
  • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • IBM
  • Leitat Technological Centre
  • Ipswich Hospital
  • National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
  • Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS)

Most of these companies and labs are in England but one company (Leitat) is in Spain.

What do they do next?

The students graduating in 2011 did their Professional Training Year in the academic year 2009/2010. In 2009/2010 we placed 15 students with companies and research laboratories. Of these 15, we know of 5 who were given job offers on graduation by the company they did their Professional Training Year with.