Sandwich courses are nothing to do with bread and fillings, unless they happen to be at the Ginsters factory. It’s a metaphor. The bread symbolises slices of academic study. The filling is job experience on a work placement.

Basically, sandwich courses – thin, thick, club, toasted, whatever – are those that involve an industrial placement as a compulsory part of the course. In order to fit in the filling, most sandwich degree courses are four years rather than three.

This can be the answer to every strapped student’s woes, because they usually get paid for the working part of their course. It’s rarely as much as they’d get if they were doing the job as a fully paid-up employee, but that’s what’s in it for the employer. The student gets to do their course and the employer gets someone who is capable and cheap.

As a result, sandwich students tend to have fewer financial worries than most. Better still, sandwich courses also have a pretty good record of getting students into jobs when they graduate, quite often with the company they did the placement with.

It’s not all pay slips and high living, though. There are added expenses for sandwich students. For example, you’ll probably have to own a couple of smart outfits, forego the student lie-in and not have a clue what is going on in Neighbours.

• Working for money
• Boosting your income

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