I was in a similar position to you going into my final year. During my third year, I applied for non-assessed vacation schemes and work experience, which are often a little less competitive and have a shorter application process. I guess you could do the same with assessed vacation schemes. I then on the back of the work experience applied to two direct training contracts (I made sure I chose firms which didn't do a vacation scheme) and it was pretty successful for a first cycle. Even just writing that I had upcoming work experience was enough to get an assessment day.
