Right from your very first week, you’ll be out working the mud with professional archaeologists, learning how to dig on live sites - this extremely hands-on course is split evenly between practicals, lectures and fieldwork and is designed to give you a wide general knowledge of archaeology, focusing in particular on the archaeology of Britain. You’ll spend four weeks each year on placement in the UK and/or abroad, working on live digs, making real discoveries and helping carry out cutting edge research - and continuing your studies and progressing on to the MSci will lead to more professional recognition in the industry. You will spend at least eight weeks on placement – working on real excavations and helping to do cutting-edge research. Some of these digs are research projects run by UCLan staff, but we also encourage more experienced students to organise their own placements with external organisations, either here or abroad. About 10% of our students do some or all of their placement with an external organisation, usually these are museum-based but we have also had people working for other local archaeological employers. You’ll have the chance to go on a two-week study field trip to Kenya in your final year, a unique opportunity to live and work among the Maasai people and study the archaeology of their country. UCLan Archaeology has a selection of international opportunities across the globe. Past projects where student have participated include California, Spain, Albania, Israel, and Mauritius. Current projects include Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology of California; the archaeology of the Great War, with fieldwork on the Somme, in France; and the archaeology of prehistoric Ireland. There are more career opportunities available in the UK than you might think - according to the Institute for Archaeologists web site, the archaeological profession provides more than 5,000 jobs and contributes over £100m to the UK economy every year, in both the public and the private sector - indeed, in 2011 there were approximately 6,000 archaeologists in the UK working for over 200 companies. UCLan Archaeology graduates work for a number of different contracting archaeological organisations. Others are employed in museums or are doing research degrees at a variety of UK universities. Some have used the transferable skills they gained on their degree to enter graduate level employment in other areas of work or to undergo further training to work in careers such as teaching.