Find Amazing

Work Experience

Looking to get a headstart in your future career? Your search for work experience starts here. Browse our helpful guides and find out how to get some practical experience in the workplace even before you leave school.

Find Amazing

Work Experience

Looking to get a headstart in your future career? Your search for work experience starts here. Browse our helpful guides and find out how to get some practical experience in the workplace even before you leave school.

The benefits of work experience

Completing some relevant work experience placements, while you’re still at school, can offer a host of benefits that help you discover and get started in your future career faster.

Latest work experience opportunities

Women in Business Programme

Financial Services

Black Heritage in Business Programme

Financial Services

Insight into Entrepreneurship with the Peter Jones Foundation

Women in Technology Programme

Financial Services

EY Business Academy

Financial Services

Explore employers that offer work experience

Financial Services

Capgemini

Information Technology and Services

Roche

Biotechnology

Kier

Construction

Airbus

Aviation & Aerospace

Jaguar Land Rover

Automotive

Frequently asked work experience questions

Still not convinced about doing work experience? Take a peek at some of the questions that are frequently asked about work experience placements.

How can I find work experience?

Finding work experience can often feel like a tricky process, especially if you don’t know where to start. Our top recommendations include:

The careers team at school

Your careers leader may already have a dedicated set of resources that includes a list of employers who have work experience opportunities

Springpod. At Springpod, we work closely with a huge and diverse range of employers across different industries who can offer work experience opportunities. Explore them now.

Company Websites. You can always go directly to the company you’d like to complete a work experience placement at, and check if they offer opportunities.

Use your existing network.
From parents to friends, there may already be people in your existing network who either know of or can recommend organisations for you complete work experience with.

How does work experience work?

Completing a work experience placement is a great way to get out of the infuriating cycle of ‘need work to get work experience, but need work experience to get work’ that many young people face these days. It also provides a good opportunity for you to gain a solid understanding of specific job roles and industries that you might want to work in. Work experience placements are often temporary or really short-term roles that often last from a few days to about two weeks. They’re usually split into:

Job Shadowing - where you spend a few hours or days ‘shadowing’ someone in a specific job role that you’re interested in.

Company or Industry visits - Similar to job shadowing, you’ll often go off in groups and get a chance to check out every part of the business and meet people from different departments.

Summer Programmes - These are slightly longer in duration as they tend to take place over the summer months, and tend to last between two-four weeks. With these you’re likely to get shorter taster sessions in different parts of the business, being supervised during each role.

Do you get paid for work experience?

Unfortunately, most work experience is not paid. This is mainly down to the fact that these placements are usually short term - ranging from a few days to a couple of weeks, and you’ll be mostly shadowing professionals who are doing their role.
However, some employers may offer other incentives like travel costs, free lunches and other experiences that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

When should I start looking for work experience?

We recommend that the sooner you start making inquiries, the more choices you’re likely to have in terms of industry and companies you want to work with. As a general guideline, keep the following in mind when looking for work experience:

Research the different career pathways that you’re interested in.

Most work experience placements happen over summer, but their deadlines can be usually a few months before. So keep track of that.

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Find Amazing

Work Experience

Looking to get a headstart in your future career? Your search for work experience starts here. Browse our helpful guides and find out how to get some practical experience in the workplace even before you leave school.

Find Amazing

Work Experience

Looking to get a headstart in your future career? Your search for work experience starts here. Browse our helpful guides and find out how to get some practical experience in the workplace even before you leave school.

The benefits of work experience

Explore different career paths

Connect studies to the real-world

Strengthen your professional network

Latest work experience opportunities

Explore employers that offer work experience

Frequently asked work experience questions

Latest Articles

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