Careers and Employability

The Law School has strong links with third sector organisations operating in the field of criminal justice, allowing us to offer volunteering and work experience placements to our Criminology students. Placement opportunities include a number of organisations that work in alliance across Greater Manchester to provide support to women at all stages of the Criminal Justice System. The placements can either be linked to the dissertation based modules offered within the curriculum curriculum or undertaken on an extra-curricular basis to gain vital work experience and skills that will boost CV’s and help kick start careers.

Students are also supported in finding work experience placement by our Faculty placements officer who specialises in finding placements, internships, and work experience for all social science students.

Lancaster University Criminology students have a unique and exciting opportunity to work with classified police data on offenders, victims, and crimes. Students who take the optional third year 'Criminal Justice Research' module work alongside the police in understanding and addressing key priorities in effective policing.

The Law School also has a scholarship fund to assist Criminology students in gaining work experience. Students can apply for money to support themselves whilst on placement, through assisting with accommodation fees, travel costs and the like.

The University offers students the opportunity to extend their degree to 4 years by undertaking a placement year in which they spend a year working with an organisation or business in a field of their choosing. This could be an organisation related to criminal justice or something entirely outside of the field. The year in industry offer students a fantastic opportunity to develop their practical skills and knowledge of the industry or sector they wish to work within.

We have very close links with Lancashire Constabulary. This means that Criminology students get the opportunity to work alongside the police in an exciting and unique third year module, 'Criminal Justice Research'. Students work with classified police data from their intelligence and information systems. They work on topics that align with the police’s priorities and students produce findings that have an impact on police practice. The module involves students developing much sought after quantitative and data analysis skills. Students who have completed this course have worked on understanding the criminal careers of offenders involved in the use of firearms, and how the police go about the process of assessing risk in cases of domestic abuse.

Data is everywhere. It is gathered and used by all manner of organisations and businesses within the field of criminal justice and outside of it, in the public and the private sector. The potential of data and its analysis is huge and as such there is an increasing demand in the workplace for skills that allow effective understanding of data and what it can tell us about the phenomena it is measuring. Therefore this module provides students with vital skills that will help not just in the process of getting work upon graduation but also skills that will be valuable throughout their career.

The Lancaster Award recognises student achievement outside of their academic studies in relation to volunteering, work experience, and campus activity. The Award builds the skills necessary to enhance the position of students in a competitive graduate job market. For more information please visit the Lancaster Award webpage.

The university careers service runs workshops throughout the year focusing on the development of students' skills in areas such as leadership and communication to prepare them for the world of work. We also have a member of the Criminology academic staff who, alongside the career service, works individually with students to provide guidance for students when planning for their career paths after their degree.

One of our optional third year modules, 'Learning Together: Criminology on the 'inside'', involves students learning collaboratively with prison-based students in the prison environment, at HMP Lancaster Farms. This provides students with the opportunity or working in a traditionally closed criminal justice setting and learning alongside people from different walks of life.

We organise a number of talks on employability throughout each academic year where students hear from people in key roles in organisations that many of our graduates go on to work for. These include talks from Lancaster University criminology graduates who are now in management positions in the public sector, and those in various third sector agencies working in the field of criminal justice.

This university scheme assigns students with a mentor who is an established professional in the students' career of choice and who provides them with advice and guidance in relation to their future career. Students are given the opportunity to spend time with their mentor, developing a relationship with them and getting an insight into what they do and how they got there.