Work Experience in the Health Sector

Work experience is an excellent way of ensuring people are aware of career and vocational pathways that may be available to them in health.  

    

Employers, students, parents and educators generally recognise the benefits of participation in work experience programmes. Gaining real-life experiences can have a positive impact on a student’s development and transition into the world of work, and there are several benefits for employers too.

Work experience allows employers to:

• Develop their workforce for tomorrow through getting young people interested in careers in health
• Action corporate and social responsibility policies
• Reduce the drop-out rates in health related courses through exposing students to the reality of health sector work
• Raise the organisations profile
• Showcase the wide variety of clinical and non-clinical roles.

Although the following resources were designed for Scotland and the East of England respectively, much of the material within the resources is transferable and applicable across the UK.

Work experience in the health sector

There are a number of work experience documents across the UK, which support work experience in the health sector. Follow the links to download the document/s applicable to you*:

Work experience in the health sector - England

NHS Careers have produced ‘Work experience in the NHS’ – a toolkit for teachers and work placement advisers’.

NHS Employers highlight work experience, providing a link to ‘Enabling work experience in the NHS’ (NHS Careers). This is a toolkit to encourage trusts to provide worthwhile work experience at various stages of a young person’s education, from GCSEs to undergraduate level. The document has templates ranging from risk assessment and daily diaries to a sample of a work experience policy. These can be downloaded and amended to meet the needs of individual trusts.

Work experience in the health sector – East of England

This work was funded by Aimhigher Healthcare Strand in 2010. A ‘Work Experience Survey’ of NHS trusts across the region was carried out to establish their engagement with young people on work experience programmes. As a result a toolkit was developed. This toolkit provides practical resources to support the whole lifecycle of work experience programmes from marketing to pre-placement and the placement itself. Resources include supervisor checklist and report templates, student handbook and guides, placement policies and procedures and post evaluation forms.

Download the toolkit here (PDF, 10.1MB)

Work placements and work experience are being promoted as an opportunity for young people by the government. Information for young people on a national basis, across the sectors, can be found on the Direct Gov website for Years 10 and 11. There is also information on work placements with advice and further links.

Work experience in the Health sector – Scotland

Skills for Health has produced the guidance document ‘Work Experience in the Heath Sector Scotland’. It provides best practice advice and guidance on the development / improvement of work experience programmes. Download it to find out more about the benefits of work experience in career change and development and how programmes can improve employability skills. The information can help you to support your business case.

Download the guidance document here

Are you ready to take the next step with work placements in your organisation? Skills for Health’s ‘Toolkit – Work Experience in the Health Sector Scotland’ is a practical toolkit with information and templates to help you establish or improve your work experience programmes. It contains application forms, risk assessments and induction checklists, and also provides guidance on occupational health, child protection and confidentiality.

Download the toolkit here

Work experience in the Health sector – Wales

Skills for Health worked with employers, NLIAH, Careers Wales and Jobcentre Plus to produce a toolkit to support employers in Wales. The resulting toolkit, ‘Enabling work experience in the health sector in Wales’, also includes examples of good practice across Wales.

Download the toolkit in Welsh

Download the toolkit in English 

*Please note: These resources aim to provide a basis from which to develop work experience programmes. They must be used in conjunction with each organisation’s own policies and procedures and it remains the responsibility of the parties involved in the programme to ensure that all of the relevant checks and assessments are carried out before a placement occurs.