Get your placement approved

Before going on your placement, your placement must be approved by the University’s Placement Team to ensure that it is suitable for your course or your module. This information is relevant for all types of placement, but not Health and Social Care placements or Education placements. 

If you’re an undergraduate student and your course has both a work experience module that includes 'Work Integrated Learning (Short Placements completed as part of a module assessment and a ‘Work placement year (sandwich)’, this process is the same for both types of placement – but be careful to select which type of placement you are requesting approval for!

To begin your approval please go to unihub.shu.ac.uk, select “Your Dashboard” and then select the relevant Placements link from the the left hand menu. You will need to complete the Health and Safety Training & Assessment Module before you complete the Placement Approval Form. Once you have submitted your request, the Placement Team will review the information you provided and they will perform an initial check of the information before forwarding to the first approver, your placement provider. This will be the person you identified when you initially submitted the information for approval.

Once submitted onto Unihub, the University will endeavour to either; action the approval process, or be in touch with you, within 5 working days. Please note, starting the placement approval process is not a guarantee that a placement experience will be approved.

Your placement provider will need to verify the information you provided is correct, and they will also need to answer some specific questions in relation to your placement. For example, in relation to their Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policies and Health & Safety. Once they have approved your placement, you will receive an email asking you to review their responses and to click approve.

For more information regarding the approval process contact the Placement Team

Changes to your placement, additional placements

The Placement approval applies to the details of the placement you initially submit. If your placement has changed, e.g. your placement start / end dates, you must notify the Placement Team if a correction needs to be made.

If you’re not happy when you start your placement and you’re thinking about swapping to a different placement, get support on placement before you make any decisions; once your placement is approved, you’re expected to stay on that placement because it’s now part of your degree.

If you secure another placement, you will need to request approval of that placement as a new placement. This includes any placements you want to do after you complete your first placement, e.g. if you’re planning to do 2x 6-month placements.

If you are converting a Short Placement (in module) to a Work placement year (Sandwich) you will need to request approval of that placement too as the learning outcomes will be different, and your responsibilities should also be different.

Fraudulent/fake placement details

When you submit your placement details, you are verifying that the information provided is genuine and accurate. If the Placement Team suspect that your placement is not genuine, your course team will be informed and this will be treated as a student conduct and disciplinary matter under the University’s Rules and Regulations.

Hybrid working, fully on-site working

All placements at Sheffield Hallam undertaken during the placement year of your course must include a minimum of 1 day per week for the whole duration of the placement working on-site at your employer’s premises, or equivalent location which is owned and/or managed by your employer. This means the University will no longer accept placements which are proposed as fully remote working.

Questions about the process?

The Placement Team oversee the whole process, so they might be able to help if it’s a question related to any of the technical aspects of the process or if you need advice in relation to anything one of the approvers has mentioned in their responses.

If you are on a student visa and/or Post-graduate course there are direct implications for changing placement and this may not be allowed dependent on your circumstance. Please contact the Placement Team before making any decisions to change placement.

What happens once my placement has been approved?

You will receive an email once your placement has been fully approved. When you have received this email you are ready to begin your placement. The placement checklist might be helpful for you to consider the practical things you might need to do before you start. If you’re going on placement outside the UK, find out about International Placements.