Different forms of work-based learning have for a long time been considered important in academic programs. Some argue that it is the most important part in any vocational training, even in academic programs educating for professions and other occupations. The aim of this paper is to start a discussion about the variation in how work-based training is described and performed in different academic programs. Every year, for three years, heads of academic programs have been interviewed about their implementation of work-based training. The interviews have been conducted at a university that have placement in all programs. Curriculums, course plans and syllabus have been collected and analyzed. Our findings suggest that there are major differences in how to think ”where professional education is good”. Some programs have course plans where student placement is embedded in progression through the program. Some programs “just place” students at the workplace or involve them in projects together with the organization where they are placed while other programs try to have “theory driven” placement. Some programs have a placement organization that train staff to receive students while other programs leave it up to students to find a placement for work-based learning. We discuss the variation from three viewpoints. What differences can be found between disciplines that dominate different programs? What diversity can be found in what various types of professionals to be do during their supervised placement? What are the circumstances under which the program implement placement? How do these forms of placement relate to different ideas about education of professions and more general ideas about where it is best to learn?