ISE’s Student Recruitment Survey reveals key trends in university work experience opportunities.
Internships and placements are an important part of early careers recruitment, helping to build a talent pipeline for future hires while providing valuable benefits to students as they gain real-world skills, make industry connections and clarify career aspirations.
This year’s ISE Student Recruitment Survey shows employers hire university students onto a range of short-term programmes. Internships tend to take on undergraduates for a short term, less than six months, usually over Easter or the summer break.
Longer-term work placements – sometimes referred to as a ‘sandwich year’ or ‘year in industry’ – usually occur in the middle of an undergraduate degree and typically last for six months to a year.
Here are five internship and placement trends to watch in 2026.
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Internships over placements
ISE’s Student recruitment Survey also found that in 2024/2025, respondents reported hiring 4,979 interns and 1,763 undergraduate placement students. Among organisations providing data for both years, this represented an overall 1% decrease compared with the previous year.
However, this overall figure masks variation and an important shift. While internship hiring increased by 2% last season, undergraduate placement hiring fell by 4%.
Looking ahead, employers anticipate a slight contraction, with internship and placement opportunities forecast to decline by 1% overall next year. Within this, intern numbers are expected to rise by 1%, while placement hires are projected to fall by 3%.
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Distinct differences across sectors
ISE data showed that sectoral differences were particularly pronounced in hiring. Employers in the Digital & IT sector increased internship hires by 8% in 2024/25, while the Retail, FMCG & Tourism sector saw the largest increase in placement hires (+27%).
By contrast, the Charity & Public Sector experienced notable declines, with internship hires falling by 17% and placement hires down by 48% compared to last year.
Growth projections also varied by sector. The Built Environment sector forecasts the strongest growth, with placements expected to rise by 20%, although internships are expected to fall slightly (–6%).
Meanwhile in Energy, Engineering & Industry, employers anticipate a sharp decline in placements (–31%) but a notable 15% increase in internships.
In Finance & Professional Services, placements are expected to rise modestly (+4%), while internship levels are predicted to remain stable. Health & Pharmaceuticals shows a small projected fall in placements (–2%) but growth in internships (+6%).
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Applications soar
AI has driven a surge in job applications and this year’s ISE Student Recruitment Survey provides substantial evidence that students’ application practices for internships and placements are also changing.
Survey respondents received 318,252 applications for intern roles during 2024/25. Among organisations able to provide year-on-year data (52 employers), this represented a 34% increase compared with the previous year.
For undergraduate placement roles, 109,357 applications were recorded in 2024/25, which represented a 17% increase from the previous year among organisations providing both years’ data (41 employers).
With vacancy levels broadly stable overall for university level work experience in 2024/2025, this increase in applications indicates either that a larger share of students will have failed to secure an internship or placement, and/or that students submitted more applications per person.
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Competition intensifies
For the last two years, ISE has reported a record high of 140 applicants per graduate vacancy. We can see similar trends in placements and internships.
Competition for university-level work experience roles intensified in 2024/25. Internships attracted an average of 101 applications per hire and work placements 123 applications per hire.
Both figures are significantly higher than last year’s published results (84:1 and 87:1 respectively). Analysis of a matched sample of employers who provided data in both years confirms this trend: internship ratios rose by 16% (from 87:1 to 101:1), while placement ratios increased by 27% (from 97:1 to 123:1). Median figures also point to growing competition, with the typical internship vacancy attracting 63 applications (up 29%) and the typical placement vacancy 82 (up 49%).
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London dominates
In terms of the regional distribution of internships and placements, ISE data shows that London continues to dominate as a destination for interns and placement students, with 43% of hires located in the capital — a similar pattern to last year.
The South East offers the next highest proportion of opportunities at 12% followed by Scotland and the North West (both 8%). Meanwhile, 6% of interns and placements are distributed around the rest of the world.
More detailed analysis and data on internships and work placements can be found in ISE Student Recruitment Survey.