For under 18’s across the country, finding work experience has always been a difficulty. After the damage sustained from COVID, many workplace environments have been left altered or have disappeared entirely. These unprecedented changes across the globe and have impacted young people horrendously, with the reflections of the damage sustained in industries projected onto the lack of work placements and experience.

 

Finding any form of experience has become more challenging than ever before. Ever increasingly, young people are giving up all together with the idea of gaining work experience or are finding that the only path to gaining it is through spending money. This is quite frankly not the case – this common misconception has become almost like a normality to some.

 

My first word of advice is to branch out into your local community and enquire in all areas about what could be potentially available to you. Using existing connections (such as family and friends) can network you into a potential community of opportunities. Even if the opportunity is not entirely ideal (such as work experience in a charity shop when you wish to pursue accountancy or marketing) it will give you many useful skills and insights. For example, working as a cashier in a charity shop would grant you experience with using numbers and applying knowledge, public relations and organisation – which are highly beneficial to job applications and also look very good on a university application.

 

Secondly, if the former paragraph does not suffice, branching out into the online world in search of work experience is also very effective. There are some brilliant schemes and conferences available in a vast field of different industries. For any aspiring doctors, veterinarians or dentists is Medic Mentor (Get Into Medicine | Support | Training | From Medic Mentor) which is a brilliant medic ‘family’ that will support you on your journey to medical school through their conferences. Career Compass (Work Placements and Mentoring Programs | The Property Prize (career-compass.co.uk)) is another brilliant site which aims to provide social mobility for young ambitious people from less advantaged backgrounds through offering highly beneficial programs.

 

Lastly, and my personal favourite - , Massive Open Online Courses MOOC.org | Massive Open Online Courses | An edX Site . It provides free (but you can upgrade for an affordable fee) courses to develop new skills in a variety of different industries. I highly recommend Mooc but don’t just take my word for it, Katie Pryor (who enrolled on “Shakespeare’s Life and Work” by Harvard university) said “I believe it will help to enhance my knowledge and personal statement for university.”

 

Overall, there are many more options then seem visible to young people. Although it may seem difficult to find opportunities, hopefully this article will have provided some insight into the availability of work experience whether it is online or in person.