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'During your time at Reading, you will enjoy many opportunities to prepare for your life and work after University. Your academic work will form the bedrock of what you take away, and will prepare you for any career where excellent critical, analytical, and communication skills are important. In addition, you will be able to sample career options and develop your practical skills through dedicated courses for Literature and Languages students, placements, a year abroad and the RED Award, our Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme.'

Professor Gail Marshall

Academic placements and studying abroad

We actively encourage our students to undertake placements. These vary from a term or year abroad, during which you can become immersed the culture and language of your chosen location, to academic placements carried out in one of your modules, to linked placements, allowing you to explore issues which connect to your seminar-room learning.

We also work with our Careers Service to help you find paid internships, including our new 'creative professional internships', designed to give you a head start in a career in the creative sector.

Find out more about academic placements  

‘I will look back on my placement as an extremely positive experience as I have made friends and contacts now for the future that may help after my graduation in July. I have discovered another beautiful part of the country and I am currently writing up a report that includes all my combined experiences and reflects my enthusiasm for the academic placement I went on. I would recommend this opportunity to any student: it is not often you get this chance.’

Anna Walter

‘Both of my placements gave me a clear picture of the working world and the media industry. I have understood the routes I need to go down to get to my chosen career. Alongside this, I have evidence of skills in so many different areas of work and the ability to write a professional report, all which I have obtained before leaving university!’

Sujata Burman

An extract by Rebecca Thomas - a creative writing student

'Amongst the multitude of things I have learned, academic and otherwise, the lesson that stands out most clearly is that things, people, are rarely ever as they seem. Poised on the end of a diving board I am no longer afraid. The rest of the year is visible, given form by the events that I am certain will take place; but after this, there is a comforting dark nothingness that resides contentedly with the knowledge that I have been prepared for that which you cannot prepare for.'

The RED Award

The Reading Experience and Development award helps you to stand out from the crowd when you graduate. By recognizing any volunteering or paid work you do, alongside training opportunities and employability workshops, you can place yourself in the best possible position in the career market.

‘The RED Award has really helped me because I used it for work experience for a potential career. It also became an interesting talking point in some of my job interviews.’

Jessica Fullam

‘Doing the RED Award has made me think a lot more about what I want to do after my degree and the development sessions have given me some really good advice on how to get things like placements and internships that will improve my CV.’

Emily Glanfield

Careers support

We offer targeted careers support that addresses careers that may be of interest to School of Literature and Languages students. In particular, the support addresses the needs of students from under-represented groups.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme

UROP placements provide exciting opportunities for undergraduates to work with staff on research projects across the University, contributing directly to the creation of knowledge and strengthening the link between teaching and research. These paid placements last six weeks over the summer break, or can be part-time over a longer period.

‘I had never been to MERL and the Special Collections, never worked with archives, and never carried out research of this kind. I came to this project hoping to discern whether or not I would be interested in postgraduate research. Working alongside scholars and archivists provides a completely different experience to that of undergraduate research, and it is an experience that I would highly recommend.’

Dale Hall

‘The best thing about my UROP placement was being able to get involved with an area of study that I was very interested in, but which didn't feature in my degree programme. Being able to work alongside professors and researchers on a professional level is a real confidence boost, and it gave me a lot of ideas about the kind of work and study I would like to do in the future. When the placement finished I was surprised by how much I had learned in such a short space of time. These new skills are really helping me now with the research for my dissertation, so in a way the UROP experience has actually fed back into my degree.’

Lucia Crowther

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