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A young woman with radiant black skin and short, curly bleached blonde hair in a short-sleeved white top smiling and thinking with a blue pen resting on her cheek. She is looking down at a piece of paper held by a woman who looks in her 30's with long brown hair and white skin who is pointing at the paper with a big smile.

For businesses

Student Placements

Get the data and AI skills your business needs with our student placements

Discover new data and AI talent to benefit your business

Inject some data and AI expertise into your organisation through our range of well-respected student placement programmes.

We can link you with Scotland’s brightest data students through our well-respected placements. They provide an invaluable opportunity for your businesses to benefit from the most up-to-date thinking, technical skills and enthusiasm from highly motivated students.

Discover what is possible with an injection of data-science expertise!

Contact a member of our team to learn more.

Who can apply?

Our student placement programme is open to any Scottish organisation looking to add state-of-the-art data-driven knowledge into their organisations. Our dedicated Placement Team will work with you to find a suitable student based on your business needs.

Join the likes of Capita, Think Analytics, NatureScot, The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, NatWest and other who have benefited first-hand from our placement students. Check out the video below to hear their story.

We caught up with NatWest, NatureScot and The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission about their recent experiences with our student placement programme.

What types of student placements are available?

Data Lab Academy programme, which matches you with an Integrated Masters or MSc Student for 8-12 weeks.

Contact us to discuss your needs and we’ll find you the perfect match.

The Data Lab Academy Placements

You’ll be amazed at what our students can achieve for you within an 8–12-week period.

At any one time, we have over 100 students in Scotland studying a range of MSc courses in AI, data science, data analytics, data engineering and more from top university and colleges. Our students are keen for work experience to use their technical skills in the real world.

From energy market price forecasting and connecting electric vehicle drivers with nature-based tourism to machine learning for glucose prediction and reinforcement learning for herd mentality in investments; our students have had an impact across every industry.

Our team will help you shape your project and will match you with a suitable student and skill set. There is no up-front cost to participate, employers are only responsible for the 8–12-week salary of the placement student.

A group of 50 students representing our student cohort. The front row is sitting down and features a diverse range of students of different ages, skin colours and styles. Everyone is smiling brightly.
Our Data Lab Academy student cohort for 2022/2023!

Examples of previous placement projects

  • AI in automated human vaccination
  • Blockchain-driven sustainable chemical marketplace
  • Connecting electric vehicle drivers with nature-based tourism
  • Energy market price forecasting
  • Enhancing computer vision interpretation of vegetation photography
  • Machine learning for glucose prediction in diabetes
  • Reinforcement learning for herd mentality in investments

Hear first-hand from our delighted employers…

“Spyros worked on a commercial piece of work and the income for this will pay for the placement. An excellent outcome.”

Laura Anderson
Director, Sea Spyder

“We are delighted with both our placements who have delivered significant cutting edge data science solutions for us.”

Duncan Hart
Deepminer

“Ionannis went beyond what was expected by producing a new AI image classification system.”

Stephen Gerrard
NatureScot

If you would like to host a student, contact the Placements Team now.

Find out how we’ve helped some of Scotland’s business access the talent they need:

  • Cameron Stott: Placement Leads to Permanent Position

    Case Study

    Case Studies, Students

    Cameron Stott: Placement Leads to Permanent Position

    Cameron Stott, a graduate of the MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Aberdeen, received hands-on industry experience at ThinkAnalytics through The Data Lab Academy. We spoke to Cameron about how the placement has impacted his career, which recently led to him securing a full-time position with the company. The Challenge Cameron’s placement at ThinkAnalytics…

    View case study

  • AICE: Innovation in early bowel cancer detection

    Case Study

    Academic Collaboration, Case Studies, Collaborate & Innovate, Universities & Colleges

    AICE: Innovation in early bowel cancer detection

    The AICE project is an international collaboration between The Data Lab, NHS Highland, DHI, and European partners using AI to help clinicians spot the early warning signs of bowel cancer, saving lives and reducing pressure on the NHS. The Challenge Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in Scotland, with around…

    View case study

View all case studies

News about our business support:

  • Forefront of AI innovations explored at DataFest 

    Community & Events, News
    14/05/2025

    The Data Lab’s annual conference discussed how data and AI will transform business and society as a whole. 500 delegates at Scotland’s leading data and AI event, DataFest, heard yesterday how data and AI have the power to unlock a brighter future and tackle global challenges such as climate change – but only if it’s…

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  • Charting Scotland’s skills for the future

    News
    13/05/2025

    Ministerial visit to DataFest celebrates launch of skills framework helping businesses and individuals upskill in data and AI.   A Data and AI Skills Framework has been launched to help reduce barriers to data and AI upskilling, offering pathways to individuals, teams, and organisations to build their data and AI capabilities.  Graeme Dey MSP, Minister for…

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  • How AI Makes Finding Safe Medicines Faster

    Guest Blogs, Thought Leadership
    25/04/2025

    In this guest blog, we’re pleased to welcome insights from Dr. Angelo Pugliese, Associate Director of In Silico Discovery at BioAscent. As part of Life Sciences Month at The Data Lab, Dr. Pugliese explores the critical role Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing in transforming drug discovery. The Challenge of Developing New Medicines Bringing a new…

    View

View all news

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