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Industry Placement

At Slough & Langley College, our dedicated Industry Placement team (part of Beyond Langley) connects you with real employers so you can get hands-on experience in your chosen industry. Many courses include a placement, giving you the chance to see the job for real, build confidence, and put your skills into practice.

We work with more than 4,000 trusted employers – from local businesses to global companies – and we’re always finding new opportunities. Whatever your interests or situation, we’ll help you find a placement that suits you.

Find out more on the Beyond Langley website.

Beyond Langley Provider Access Statement

Why is Industry Placement important?

 

  • Industry placement introduces you to the world of work – it will give you an idea of the day-to-day elements of your industry and the skills that are most valuable to it.
  • It allows you to build relationships with potential future employers – students often impress their employer so much that their placement can result in a job offer.
  • It enhances your CV – students with work experience are always more attractive to future employers.
  • An industry placement is a compulsory requirement for your college study programme.
  • It gives you the opportunity to experience different settings – helping you make meaningful decisions about what sector you intend to specialise in beyond your studies.
Learn more

When you leave college you will have:

  • Industry recognised qualifications
  • Technical skills and know-how
  • Practical work experience with leading employers
Girl with a plumbing line

We Will

 

  • Guide you and provide resources for you to self-source your perfect placement
  • Underpin classroom taught theory by putting it into practice
  • Carry out health and safety visits to
    ensure the workplace is ready for you
  • Support you on a one-to-one basis
    with your work placement

Frequently asked questions

Industry Placement refers to a specified period of time that you will spend working within a business to learn directly about working life and the work environment.

Some industry placement positions will offer you the chance to try particular tasks, while others provide the opportunity to watch and learn first-hand. The nature and length of the work experience can vary, but these arrangements can be agreed in advance with you, the student and the employer via the College.

Industry experience is vitally important for both young people and employers. The experience can help both make an informed decision about the future. The more first-hand knowledge you, as a student can gain about a job role, the work environment and what is expected of you in the workplace, the more successful you will be in finding employment and fitting into your new role in the business. Equally, industry experience can provide a business with a potential pipeline of new talent, the chance to ‘try before they buy’ and the reassurance that a potential new recruit has already gained some understanding of the work environment either through experience with them or another organisation.

There is no legal requirement for a business to pay you for your time on industry placement as you are there to learn as part of your continuing programme of study. In some cases, however, employers do offer to contribute to your travel expenses, pay for lunches or extend an employee benefit.

  • Enables you to develop vital employability skills
  • Provides an insight into the real work environment
  • Helps you gain confidence in the workplace
  • Increases your knowledge of a job role or industry and the skills it requires
  • Increases your chance of finding employment on completion of your course
  • Helps you build your CV
  • Helps you understand how skills you are learning in college relate to the workplace.

Some of our courses have industry placements built in, giving you a valuable and regular opportunity to work in the relevant industry and to put your learning to the test in a real, but supported, work environment.

Students on courses without compulsory placements can also access industry experience with support from college staff.

For more information contact the team via email on industryplacement.langley@windsor-forest.ac.uk or call 01753 392140, you can visit our Beyond  Langley website.

Whilst we will do our best to reply to you within 24 hours, we may be out visiting students and employers.

Download our Course Guide

If you haven’t yet chosen the courses you would like to do, then download our Slough and Langley course guide to find out more about everything from being part of our community, success stories, course outlines, entry requirements and more.

2026-2027 Guide