Work experience - Northern services
Work experience offers you the opportunity to appreciate the working environment prior to making a career choice. It can provide a valuable insight to help you make the right decisions.
The NHS is not just about doctors and nurses -there are over 350 different roles from engineers, scientists, finance, administration and managerial career pathways.
Work experience in Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will give you a sample of many of these careers.
Work experience is unpaid. Placements can be in clinical areas on wards, or non-clinical areas such as in offices and reception areas.
We hope that after taking part in Year 10 work experience opportunity, you will be keen to undertake a career in the NHS after completing your education.
Benefits of Work Experience include
- Opening doors to future employment opportunities
- Building your confidence, extending your skills and knowledge
- Putting your skills into practice
- Appreciating the relevance of the what you learn at school/college
- Exposure to a working environment
For year 10 students [14/15 years of age] we offer you the following opportunities:
All North Devon schools are sent application forms in September, the Career Leads will issue these to students who are genuinely interested in pursuing a career within the health service. In January/February a representative from our Trust will come into each school to interview those students who have submitted an application form and a formal interview will take place.
If you are successful in gaining a place on the programme, you will attend one week Work Experience which is normally the 1st week of July at North Devon District Hospital.
The students will gain a unique insight into many different roles through observing healthcare professionals, workshops and classroom lectures. During this week, students will be supervised at all times. Before commencing activities they will be briefed further on confidentiality issues & infection control. When students are observing an activity involving a patient, the patient’s consent must be obtained beforehand.
Students will not be taken into A&E, Theatres Maternity or the Children's Ward.
Students will not be exposed to any invasive procedures or activities that will compromise the privacy and dignity of patients.
Feedback from year 10 students
“This experience made me want to become a doctor even more and has let me recognise other roles and responsibilities in the NHS”
“I honestly cannot describe how much I have learnt during the week’s experience. I have learnt so much which has been so interesting and detailed”
“I enjoyed the clinical skills particularly, because we had a lot to do and it was quite fast moving. I also enjoyed our clinical placement because they gave me a brilliant view of how the hospital is run and how all of the roles within the hospital interlink”
“The thing I enjoyed the most was going on our placements and learning about what is on different wards and learning about things like Dementia”
“It has given me the opportunity to understand the different roles in the NHS, which I now definitely want to work in!”
Contact details
For further information please contact: Lucy Warner, Young Workforce Facilitator, Workforce Development
e-mail: lucywarner1@nhs.net