Work Experience

Work experience

It is important to consider taking part in some work experience to help you develop some key skills and responsibilities which you can use to make your application to college or university stronger. You can find more advice and information at My World of Work to start thinking about options for work experience.

Taking the opportunity to complete some work experience is valuable for a few reasons:

·       It allows you to get a taste of what that career or type of work is like in the real-world so you can see if it is something you enjoy and want to do more in the future.

·       It can develop the key skills that are directly relevant for the course you are applying to which you can write about in your personal statement.

·       It can give you a clear example which you can use as a discussion point or to help you answer questions if you are asked for an interview.
Think about what might be valuable for the course you are applying for, what kind of skills you want to be able to demonstrate, what you want to learn about that job before you apply for your course. Here are some ideas for different vocational areas of work.
- Vet Medicine- it is important you get a range of experience (usually for at least 4 weeks) with a variety of animals in different contexts. You can find out more here for some ideas to get started.
- Medical professions- it is important you get some relevant work experience in the medical or healthcare field to showcase the clinical skills needed for your chosen profession. Some ideas could be contact your local GP or hospital to shadow a medical profession, volunteer in a care home, or you can find more volunteer opportunities with the NHS here.
- Teaching- it is important you can demonstrate where you have worked with young people and shown your leadership skills. You could think about helping at your local primary school, helping out with S1 or S2 lessons, becoming a school subject ambassador, or coaching at your sports club.

Work Experience

Work experience

Why is it important?

What kind of work experience can you gain?

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