Work experience is a fantastic way to gain insight into a particular job or industry – the experience can help you decide on the subjects to study, the experience you need and the right career for you.
Is there a work experience placement at a healthcare provider near you? Head to our Partners page and follow the links to the organisation's webpage to find out what opportunities might be available.
What is work experience in health and care?
Work experience is an opportunity for direct experience of work within an organisational or practice setting.
Work experience helps people prepare for professional study and their future career. It allows those on placement to see what the job is really like, understand the demands of the career and find out if it is suited to them.
It gives the participants the opportunity to develop and demonstrate the values, attitudes and behaviours necessary to work in the health and care.
If you are a student, why start work experience?
Work experience is often encouraged for students so they can:
- understand the world of work
- have an understanding of the careers that they are interested in pursuing
- build up their experience for job or further study applications.
For healthcare courses, universities and colleges will be looking for students who have:
- had people-focused experience of providing a service, care or help to others and that they understand the realities of working in a caring profession
- developed some of the values, attitudes and behaviours essential to working in healthcare such as conscientiousness, good communication skills, and the ability to interact with a wide variety of people
- a realistic understanding of healthcare and in particular the physical, organisational and emotional demands of the role.
When/how long?
Work experience can be available at any point in the year.
The placements will vary in length. Within a trust, hospital and health and care, setting the average work experience can start at five days to weeks. However, in smaller employers they can last from one to five days.
Encourage your students to focus on the quality of the experience rather than the time spent on placement. They should use the time to gain an understanding of the work in the organisation and of the profession.
Students might be able to combine placements with other providers in a different setting. The focus is not how much work experience someone undertakes but how they reflect on it and what they learn from it.