Aside from the obligatory two-week placement school pupils complete during year 10, work experience isn’t something most students take seriously until they’re at university. Then, it’s a possibility to bulk up the CV and meet potential employers.
But is figure experience now an important prerequisite for sixth formers applying to college A report released last year by education charity the Sutton Trust warned that prime universities use personal statements – inclusive of extracurricular experiences – to differentiate between students of equal academic ability. It said that people who visit private schools are much more prone to recount impressive placements with blue chip employers. This provides them a bonus when applying for a school place.
Many vocational degree courses corresponding to medicine or fashion say that applicants must complete work placements before applying. Sheffield University Medical School explains that this helps students to develop their medical knowledge and talents, and make sure they have got “an understanding of the complex nature of a doctor’s role, in addition to being acquainted with the highs and lows of the profession”.
Competition for work placements is hard, because the careers portion of the NHS website advises: “Attempt to get as much experience as you feasibly can; start gaining it as early as you’ll be able to. What you might want to make certain of is that you’ve got something for you to discuss in your personal statement and at interview.”
Work placements don’t seem to be normally an entry requirement for those hoping to take a humanities course, though they can help a candidate stand out. Mary Beard, professor of classics on the University of Cambridge, says work experience may help admissions tutors understand a prospective student.
“Work experience is without doubt one of the things that could give me some idea of the way a student can reflect analytically on new experience.” But she adds that simply listing where you’veyou’ve got you have got completed work placements isn’t enough: “However glamorous or enterprising it was, if a student can’t reflect thoughtfully on it — well that counts against them.”
Professor Beard stresses that it is crucial to not dwell on where or how prestigious your work experience is, but instead to spotlight the way you applied yourself whenever you were there. If a student applying for a physics degree did five weeks of labor experience at CERN and all they might remember was what font they used, it might reflect badly on them.
Similarly, if a veterinary student, who kept a super word-for-word journal in their work experience, couldn’t analyse the moral considerations surrounding the euthanasia of an animal in an interview, they will fail to electrify.
When considering getting work experience, it is crucial to not get over excited with the reputation of the establishment to that you are applying. Admissions tutors are far more involved in what you gained out of your work experience. Additionally it is worth remembering that work experience would not make up for low grades.
As Beard puts it: “I’m fascinated by work experience only to the level that the applicant has something intellectually interesting to claim about it.”
