The Highest Paid Internships & Placements in the UK
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Getting work experience while you're at university is essential. It's so, so important. So leap over to our jobs page and discover which employers are hiring!
This is our guide to the highest paid internships and placements in the UK.
Internships and placements are valuable opportunities to get professional work experience. Students who have worked in industry for anywhere between 12 weeks and 12 months have a better chance of securing a graduate job than students with zero experience.
The average salaries for placements in the UK (based on our reviews) is £16,907 per annum. The average salary for interns is higher, at £20,038 on a pro rata basis. Below we will break down the highest average salaries across different sectors and regions in the UK.
So, read on and discover what you could expect to earn if you complete an internship or placement during your sandwich course...
How did we work out the average salaries?
Last year, 4,897 students submitted reviews on RateMyPlacement about their undergraduate work experience. In each review, they respond to fifteen questions about their role, the organisation they worked for and the perks of their scheme.
Students also revealed their salary information, enabling their peers to discover how much they would be paid if they worked for a particular employer, or on a similar scheme.
Using the data from the 4,987 reviews we were able to work the average salaries for jobs in different sectors, and in various regions across the UK.
Highest Paid Internships & Placements 2020
These are the highest paying sectors for placements and internships in the UK. Who knew that you could earn over £20k getting work experience? Just imagine what you could do with that sort of money... you could be very sensible and put it all in the bank, or you be more daring, skip down to the casino and put it all on black.
Internships
POSITION | COMPANY | SALARY |
|---|---|---|
#1 | Banking | £24,285 |
#1 | IT | £24,285 |
#2 | Business | £20,621 |
#3 | Law | £20,519 |
#4 | Accountancy | £19,279 |
#5 | Engineering | £17,525 |
#6 | Science | £17,390 |
Placements
POSITION | COMPANY | SALARY |
|---|---|---|
#1 | Banking | £18,995 |
#2 | Accountancy | £18,744 |
#3 | IT | £18,731 |
#4 | Law | £18,567 |
#5 | Business | £18,383 |
#6 | Science | £18,118 |
#7 | Engineering | £17,837 |
Regional Salaries
These are the average salaries for different regions in the UK. Both London regions tend to have higher average salaries because the cost of living is more expensive.
POSITION | REGION | SALARY |
|---|---|---|
#1 | £22,992 | |
#2 | £21,135 | |
#3 | £19,308 | |
#4 | £18,494 | |
#5 | £18,111 | |
#6 | £17,928 | |
#7 | £17,875 | |
#8 | £17,778 | |
#9 | £17,660 | |
#10 | £17,613 | |
#11 | £17,564 | |
#12 | £17,246 | |
#13 | £14,990 |
We believe ALL internships should be paid
At RateMyPlacement, we believe that ALL interns should be paid for their work. Any and all companies offering undergraduate work experience should always pay its interns a fair salary. During a work experience placement, you will effectively assume the responsibilities of a regular employee - so it's only fair that you're rewarded (and paid) like any other worker.
Most companies do now pay their interns a decent wage, and on our jobs page, we do not advertise any unpaid internships in the UK.
If you have a spare 3.5 minutes, read our blog Why I Regret Doing an Unpaid Internship, written by a member of the RateMyPlacement team who did four. Mental.
Written by Conor
Conor has been writing about placements, internships and undergraduate work experience for RateMyPlacement.co.uk since July 2016, where he joined straight after graduating from university.