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‪Higher education work placements designed to enable students to develop professional skills have proliferated, and particularly so since the introduction of the “Plan Réussite en Licence”. A tripartite relationship between universities, companies, public authorities or associations, and the student is established to enable the formative dimension of these placements. But this dimension can only be delivered under certain conditions related to the content of the jobs, preparation, supervision and evaluation on the part of the university and the host organisation, and the reflective posture of the student concerned. This article proposes a typology of work placements, based on a survey of students in their third year of university studies, in which they were asked about these different criteria. The four types of work placement identified differ greatly in their degree of linkage with the course. Even if the degree of satisfaction with the work placement is high, only just over one student in five finds it very beneficial to their studies.‪