Many different types of activity count as work experience...

Part-time/casual work

Part-time/casual work, in addition to earning you money, can be an opportunity to obtain useful skills and experience. The range of part-time work is wide, including areas such as bar, catering, customer services, clerical, social care, sales and marketing, IT, retail and, increasingly, call centre work. Follow the links here for more information about part-time work.

Work experience/work placements

Placements are organised by employers and are aimed generally at penultimate year students, although increasingly employers are offering placements to first year students as well. They typically take place in the summer vacation but also over the Easter and Christmas vacation as well.

Placements are useful in giving you an insight into an organisation and what they are looking for, without any longer-term commitment. It also gives the employer the chance to see how you adapt to the workplace and whether you are a good prospect in terms of a job offer for when you graduate.

Placements usually last between 1-12 weeks and offer an opportunity to gain real graduate level work, often project-based. You will be given proper training and will be paid for your work.

Visit the work experience resources page for organisations and useful websites for these opportunities.

Industrial/sandwich placements

These are periods of work experience undertaken as part of a course and your performance on placement contributes to your degree result. They are most commonly found as part of business studies, engineering and more technical degrees. They might form the whole of the third year of a four-year degree course or be split into shorter periods throughout the course.

They are usually for a period of 6-12 months, and often involve you having specific responsibility for a project. Many students choose this option to give a vocational element to their degree and to stand out from the competition on graduation. Industrial placements are usually taken between the second and third year.

Successful students are sometimes offered a bursary for their final year's study and a job on graduation.

Visit the work experience resources page for organisations and useful websites for these opportunities.

Project work

You might opt to carry out a work-related project as part of your degree course during term-time or vacation. This is an alternative to a sandwich course or longer work placement. You might, however, have to set up the placement for yourself, although your department we can help with suggestions of possible contacts.

Visit the work experience resources page for organisations and useful websites for these opportunities.

Voluntary work

Volunteering, either in your local community or abroad can demonstrate skills employers look for such as commitment, enthusiasm, motivation, time management, people skills, communication, flexibility and many more. It also provides a good opportunity to try out your career ideas before committing yourself to your chosen career.

Voluntary work is an essential step towards some careers, for example, a career in social work, teaching or the not for profit sector, and an accessible way to gain experience in other competitive fields such as journalism. Follow the links here for information about volunteering.

Download: Should I do a Voluntary Placement? FAQs 

Work shadowing

This involves observing a professional in your chosen career and gives you a valuable insight into the job/company. It is often an informal arrangement between student and organisation and can last anything from one to day to a week.

Workplace visits

These tend to be short visits to a company that can be undertaken either as part of your course or arranged independently by yourself.

Open days

Some employers organise open days for students to give them a taste of what their company is like. These days often include presentations, business simulations and games. Look on employer websites for details of open days. We also advertise some open days on our national careers events page.

Business simulation/insight courses

Opportunities exist within a number of organisations to experience simulated business exercises. These vary in length from half a day to two or three days looking in detail at a specific area of work, for example, marketing or finance. Careers run an annual event called Tomorrow's Managers. Tomorrow's Managers is our two-day insight into management course. The course aims to help students develop their employability skills through business challenges developed by graduate employers and to understand the issues faced by modern business professionals. Find out about the programme here.

Gap year/year out after studies

Taking a year out after during your studies or after graduating is a popular option with those who want to travel before settling into a career or feel they need extra time in which to make a decision about their career, whilst at the same time developing useful skills and experience.

Visit the work experience resources page for organisations and useful websites for these opportunities. Also visit the taking time out page.

>>What are the benefits of doing work experience?