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Unlock Exciting School Work Experience Opportunities!

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Discover transformative school work experience opportunities with industry experts. Elevate your skills and start your journey with Speakers for Schools.

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How to help your teen find work experience

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Work experience covers a range of opportunities, from attending the workplace in person, shadowing or observing a particular person or job role, volunteering or carrying out work remotely/virtually. What's important is that your teen gets some first-hand experience of what it's like to work.

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Welcome to your Connect Learner Portal (2)

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Look for local companies offering apprenticeships. They then might take a work experience placement

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Look for local companies offering apprenticeships. They then might take a work experience placement

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Register your profile, search vacancies and apply for an apprenticeship - you must be 16 or over

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Welcome! You are invited to register for a recording.

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Welcome! You are invited to register for a recording.

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Writing a CV,  sign in with your office account

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Writing a CV,  sign in with your office account

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You only get one chance to make a first impression. Use our CV builder to document your education and work experience and to evidence your skills and abilities. Follow our links to more hints and tips and export to a Word document when you’re done!

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Employers are very keen on work experience - or rather, they're keen on what it gives you: the confidence and practical skills you need to succeed in the workplace. Whether or not you're planning to go to university, getting good work experience while you are at school will stand you in good stead when it comes to getting hired.

If you want to apply to a school leaver programme, your work experience will make you a much stronger candidate; if you plan to get a degree, you can draw on it when applying for internships and other placements. It will also give you a better feel for what you do and don't enjoy and the career choices you want to make.

You have probably done work experience arranged through your school, possibly more than once. However, what employers mean by the term can be broader than you might think. All sorts of activities can help to develop the qualities you need at work.

Here are some examples of the range of ways you can gain work experience:

Formal work experience placement. Often up to a week in a location arranged by your school or independently. Typically unpaid, this is an opportunity to learn about the world of work and see it in action.

School leaver careers fairs and employer events. A chance to meet either lots of employers in one go or a single employer, for example via an open evening at its offices.

Employer's insight day or week for school leavers. Some organisations that run school leaver programmes also offer you the chance to spend a day or more seeing for yourself what working there would be like and meeting employees who have joined straight from school. Professional services providers PwC, BDO and EY all run insight weeks, while IT employers IBM and CGI offer insight evenings.

Extracurricular activities. Being part of a sports team or another club or group such as a theatre group or choir. Involvement in the Scouts or Guides, or Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

Volunteering and fundraising. There are stacks of volunteering opportunities out there. You could walk dogs for an animal charity, volunteer as a retail assistant in a charity shop, help with outdoor conservation projects, collect funds or support young disabled people on activity days. You can find out more about volunteering opportunities for young people from Volunteering Matters and vInspired.

Competitions. Look out for competitions in areas that interest you, for example design, writing, maths or business. You could try your luck in the TARGETcareers School Leavers' Challenge.

Entrepreneurship. Perhaps you aspire to run your own business one day, or maybe you've got a commercial idea that you're keen to get off the ground. Employers are keen to take on candidates with entrepreneurial flair, so it's well worth honing your skills whether or not you go on to set up your own venture. You could try the Young Enterprise Tenner Challenge or seek help from Shell LiveWIRE and apply for a start-up grant for a business idea that supports sustainable use of energy and resources.

Part-time jobs. A part-time job such as working in a shop gives you customer service and time management skills and helps to develop your commercial awareness. Doing a paper round or babysitting calls for responsibility and resilience. Employers like evidence that you can be relied on to turn up when expected and stick at what you're meant to be doing till you've seen it through.

Personal projects. If you've designed and made something under your own steam, such as a DIY or craft project, a website or a blog, you may well have developed the problem-solving and creative skills that employers look for.

Positions of responsibility. Are you head boy or head girl, a sports captain or house captain? Have you been a student representative, taking prospective pupils and parents on tours and speaking to them, or been involved in the school council? Have you have a leadership or committee role in a group or club? This kind of experience hones the communication and leadership skills employers want.

Using your work experience to get you a job

It's important to understand how employers see work experience, as otherwise you can miss out on telling them about things you've done that would impress them and help you to land a job or a place on a school leaver programme. Our advice on the top ten skills that will get you a job when you leave school explains how to present yourself as a strong candidate by giving examples of the skills employers look for.

Use your initiative to boost your work experience

You can contact reputable employers directly to see if you can arrange a few days' work experience for yourself. This is known as a speculative application.

Do you have an idea what you would like to do in the long term? If you are considering one or two particular careers, whether it's journalism, engineering or medicine, this will help you to narrow down your search and decide where to apply.

Check out our advice on different careers for ideas. Talk to family members, friends and contacts, look at your local newspaper and do an internet search for suitable employers in your local area.

Once you know where you want to apply, you need to get in touch to find out whether the employer you are interested in offers this kind of opportunity and how to apply. Make contact by phone or email to say that you are interested in coming in for a few days' work experience and to ask if there's any preferred way of applying.

Some organisations have application forms for work experience applicants; if this is not the case, ask if you could send in a CV and covering letter. Find out who to send it to and check how to spell the person's name and what title you should use (Mr, Mrs or Ms, or some other form of address such as Dr, for example).

Our advice on CV writing will help you put together your speculative application. Send it with a short covering letter (no more than one side of A4) stating briefly why you would like to do work experience with this particular organisation and suggesting dates when you are available. You can also highlight any relevant skills or experience or go into detail about something mentioned briefly on your CV that would be likely to be of interest to the employer.

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Work experience for school students: what you need and how to get it

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Employers are very keen on work experience - or rather, they're keen on what it gives you: the confidence and practical skills you need to succeed in the workplace. Whether or not you're planning to go to university, getting good work experience while you are at school will stand you in good stead when it comes to getting hired.

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If you’re stuck and need some help, you can speak to:

·       Mrs Porter – Careers Lead porterk@elatschools.co.uk

·       Ms Scott – Careers SLT Link scottj@elastschools.co.uk

·       Mrs Witchalls – ELAT Careers Adviser kwitchalls@elatschools.co.uk

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·      Head of year, SGM, subject teachers or form tutors

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Work Experience Launch Video for Teachers and Students

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Work experience is a chance for you to:

·       find out more about yourself

·       find out what inspires you

·       come up with career ideas and try them out

·       discover your strengths, values, motivations and interests

·       meet new people and build your network of contacts

It can help you decide what career you might want to consider in the future and it can also help you to rule out options.

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Opportunities for school and college students

From year 8, you should have the chance to take part in workplace experiences.

You could:

shadow someone at work to see what their job is like

visit different workplaces

go to work with a parent or guardian

do a 1 or 2 week work placement

go into a workplace for one day a week over a period of time

Speak to your school or college careers leader about workplace experience.

If you're at college, your work placement team may also be able to help.

Courses that offer work experience

All T Levels and traineeships will include work experience.

You may be able to do work experience as part of a vocational technical qualification (VTQ) and some degree courses.

Work experience might be one day a week over a few months or full time for a few weeks. You may have a placement officer or tutor who can help you find work experience during your course.

Work shadowing

Work shadowing provides a chance to watch someone doing a job for a day or a few days. You could do this to find out about a job role.

If you're in a job, you could use it to explore opportunities for personal development or a promotion. It gives you an idea of what a job involves, rather than hands-on experience.

Internships

Internships are paid periods of work experience lasting around 2 to 3 months in the summer. They're usually aimed at undergraduates and recent graduates. There are some opportunities for school leavers.

You can get information from your university careers service. There may be internship schemes dedicated to students at your university.

Placement year

A placement year is a paid year in the workplace as part of a higher education course. You apply for these in the same way as graduate jobs. University careers services can help you to find opportunities relevant to your course.

Insight events

Insight events are usually organised by companies or careers organisations. You spend a day or a few days finding out about a specific sector such as:

Gap year and year abroad experience

Companies and charities may offer gap year and work abroad experiences. You could also set this up for yourself.

Virtual work experience

Companies are starting to develop 'virtual' placements. You work remotely using digital technology, without having to go into the workplace.

You can also learn to deal with situations in the workplace without having to go out on a placement. Accenture's Skills to Succeed Academy and Barclays Lifeskills can help you to develop these skills.

FutureLearn has a virtual work experience course for exploring the work of a vet.

Search online for other online work experience, virtual internships and insight into work opportunities.

More ways to get work experience

You can also gain work experience if you:

do some volunteering

get a part-time job

go to face-to-face or virtual company events and open days

help friends or family with a business

set up your own small business

enter competitions and skill challenges like World Skills

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Look at the different ways to try out different careers and see whether they're right for you.

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Work Experience FAQs for Parents and Carers

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Work Experience FAQs for Parents and Carers

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Sway: Create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more.

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Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app for creating interactive reports, presentations, personal stories and more. Its built-in design engine helps you create professional designs in minutes. With Sway, your images, text, videos, and other multimedia all flow together in a way that enhances your story. Sway makes sure your creations look great on any screen.