Does a work placement – whether volunteer work or paid work, part-time work or an internship – help you get into university? That is what, in this article, we are going to find out.
To spoil the surprise, the answer is yes. Any involvement in the world of work – whether that’s volunteer experience or paid work experience – will impress your prospective university’s admissions officers. It helps even more if it is relevant to the course you are applying to study.
Having work experience as a literary agent will surely help you as an applicant for an English literature degree. Meanwhile, gaining job experience in a lab will also increase your chances of getting into a science course.
But you are just doing whichever work placement is not enough. To make the full breadth of your relevant experience stand out on your application, you must do more than say you did it.
How you present this experience is a crucial part of your application. We’ll point towards this at the end. However, let’s start byby telling you how to find an excellent work experience.
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How to Find Work Experience
Work experience is out there to be found. But there is no unique way to find employment experience that will be helpful for your university application. Instead, finding work experience is like seeing the real thing – actual work. So, let’s get you ready to go for it.
Unless you are fortunate, finding work can be a tricky game. Particularly when, before university, you don’t have much experience. It can feel like one of those situations in which to gain any occasion, you need prior experience – which is an awful game of chicken and egg.
However, you do need to do it. So, keep an eye out for part-time work and voluntary experience – and ask your parents or older friends if you can come into the office to see what’s cooking.
Ultimately, the most crucial part of finding work and work experience is not to give up!
Find out about getting a job for your degree!
Apply to Part-time Jobs
One of the less fun experiences of being an adult is applying for work. Job sites don’t make this experience any more accessible.
However, if you want a part-time job, there is no better place to start. Jump online and see what opportunities are around. At the very least, this will inform your job search later on.
There are hundreds of job sites to choose from – all of them advertise less than reputable jobs too. So, keep your wits about you and get your parents’ help discerning the legitimate jobs from the others.
Volunteer for Charities
Charities, whether for older people, for the environment, or for political rights, are always on the lookout for volunteers. The good thing about volunteering is that, more often than not, charities don’t have just one specific role open to which to apply. There’s much less competition and much more of a spirit of welcome.
However, there is much less money involved too.
Volunteering for a charity is an excellent opportunity for you if you are after experience for the sake of knowledge – rather than for the extra pocket money.
Talk to People You Might Know
A strategy that might be sniffed at as you grow older is legitimate when you are still a child. Ask your parents or family if they can take you for a week’s work experience or shadowing.
Now, your parents might be in the most tedious jobs imaginable. However, experience helps you to get more experience – so take any experience opportunities where you can get them and use them to move on to other things.
If your fun aunt is a museum curator and that’s where you ultimately want to end up, don’t be afraid to ask.
Check out why extracurricular activities matter to your uni!
Visit Your Careers Advisor or Speak to a Voluntary Service
Schools have career advisors for a reason. So, if you are looking for employers, internships, recruiters, or just a bit of help with your cover letter, go and speak to them. That’s what they are for.
Meanwhile, there are places for job-seekers to talk about employability and career development in the real world. Try a career centre or a site like Volunteer Scotland, which can hook you up with the places where you can gain experience.
Search Dedicated Youth Employment Sites
Finally, try one of the many sites where you can find jobs specifically for young people. Organisations such as Youth Employment, Princes Trust, or Career Connect are designed to help you with these things.
Browse the site and see if anything takes your fancy.
How ‘Relevant’ Does Your Work Experience Have to Be?
So, you have found some opportunities, but an understandable question arises: how relevant does work experience have to it to benefit your application?
The answer is not necessarily necessary, but the more relevant, the better. If you can get part-time work in a shop, that is already better than not having a part-time job. However, having work experience as a history professor will help you get into a history degree (we hope you won’t be getting this job anyway).
So, to thrive at university, you don’t need all of the relevant skills already. Instead, having the drive to learn new skills is good enough for your university application. And that’s what work experience shows.
Try school competitions and activities for your application too!
Why is Work Experience Important?
It is not just about the direct experience that is helpful in work experience. Instead, there are heaps of ways in which it is essential to your career path and university prospects.
Let’s show you a couple. We hope they convince you that ‘relevant’ work experience isn’t everything.
It Shows Someone Else Recognises Your Skills
The first helpful thing about getting work experience is that it shows admissions officers, hiring managers, or a future potential employers that someone else has seen value in your skills, character, and experience.
Coming out of the blue with no experience to your name, you will have no one to vouch for you in the skills that you are claiming. Work experience helps this.
Professional Experience Gives You Soft Skills
Professional experience doesn’t just give you the skills for that particular job. Instead, it gives you a whole host of transferable skills that are good for academia and for you as a person too.
Universities want to see that you can communicate, persuade, manage your time, and think for yourself. The job title itself doesn’t matter so much.
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Helps You to Grow Up
Similarly, work helps you to grow up. It allows you to learn to take on responsibility, to work towards something larger than just you, and it gives you experience of the wider world.
No university wants to accept a child who is still very much childish in their attitude to the world.
Work Experience Distinguishes You from Everyone Else
If there is a situation in which admissions officers at a university have to decide between two people with identical applications – same grades, same extracurricular clubs, etc. – but one has some work experience, which do you think they would pick?
It’s generally wise to avoid being in a situation in which you are the one who is let go.
It May Bear Directly on Your Studies
If you are fortunate, you’ll get work experience directly relevant to your studies. Considering how competitive the field is, if you are applying to study something like medicine, it’s best if you get as much relevant experience as possible.
However, you may find that you can get into a position that teaches you something you can use in your studies.
It’ll Help Your Future Career Too
Finally, once you have stepped out of university, the search for work experience starts again. It’s best not to be someone who has passed all of this time without any knowledge whatsoever.
Work experience can help to show you what you like – and also what you don’t like. This can be hugely essential data in the search for ‘what you want to do when you grow up’.
Make the Most of Your Work Experience in Your Application
Remember, university applications do not work by you listing all of your experiences. This is not helpful in impressing those who will read your application.
Instead, professors and admissions experts want to see that you can reflect on your experience. You can learn more about how to write a good university application.
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