Work Experience and Volunteering

Year 10 Work Experience Programme

In Year 10, all Herschel students complete a week of block work experience, by sourcing their own placements through friends and contacts or using the Unifrog platform to find placements available in their local area. 

Other Work Experience

At Herschel, we strongly encourage students to undertake work experience whenever possible in other year groups.

This should ideally take place in the school holidays, although leave of absence from school can sometimes be negotiated with your relevant Head of Learning - make sure you have a chat with your Head of Learning before signing up for any opportunities that arise.

Work Experience Opportunities

Regular work experience opportunities that come to our attention will be posted below, whilst the very latest opportunities will be sent to relevant year groups and parents as 'Careers Alert' emails as they often have quite tight timeframes for application.

Workfinder App

Download the Workfinder app by clicking on the link below and use it to connect with employers.

https://www.skillsbuilder.uk/programmes/workfinder-work-experience 

GSK

GSK run an extremely popular three day work experience programme in the February and October half terms called 'Molecule to Market' and based at their Stockley Park offices. Eligible year groups will be notified by email when applications open, and of the results of those applications.

Cisco

Cisco run a technical and business based work experience programme in November and July every year called 'Pathway to Your Future' and open to Year 10 and 11 students. Relevant year groups will be directly emailed when applications are open.

EY

EY is a 'professional services' company, meaning that they provide assurance and accountancy help, assistance with tax affairs, consultancy and corporate transactions. They run a one week Business Academy programme for Year 12 students in the summer. Click on the logo below to find out more and apply.

McLaren Automotive

McLaren Automotive offer a work experience programme for Year 10 and 11 students every year, usually with a February application deadline. Click on the logo below and search for 'work experience' to see if there are any opportunities currently on offer.

The BBC

The BBC has four application windows every year and each one lasts two weeks. There are several categories of work experience available at four locations. You can only choose one category in one location. There is no separate category for online work, but all of categories offer placements that have a strong interactive element.

When you choose your location and category and fill in your online application, they will ask you some questions about your interests and passion for your chosen placement. If you are successful, they will do their best to match you to a placement that’s right for you.

Every work experience placement is different, but they’re all designed to give you the opportunity to make the most of your time there. When you arrive, your Placement Manager will want to find out more about you and what you want to get out of your time. They’ll try to get you involved in the things that interest you most.

Remember that work experience is unpaid but it’s a learning experience and not a job.

British Airways

Herschel Grammar School is in the official catchment area for doing work experience with the company at London Heathrow and elsewhere. They have specific timeslots during which you can apply - you will be notified by email when these open, if you are in a relevant year group.

You can also click on the link below to visit the work experience part of their website, or email work.experience@ba.com to make contact directly.

https://www.britishairways.com/careers/work-experience/index.jsp 

Medical Work Experience

Ms Cole, a previous school careers advisor, wrote an article packed with useful advice and links, looking at how volunteering can be a great way of getting meaningful medical work experience. Download the article as a PDF from the bottom of this webpage.

You can also click HERE to read a very useful guide to work experience in healthcare from the Success at School website.

Click on the link below to visit Premed Projects, an organisation offering medical work experience and shadowing in the UK. Note that there is a significant charge for this service.

http://www.premedprojects.co.uk

Law

Legal work experience can be very difficult to find, but this link to All About Law provides you with some ideas.

Remember that you can always visit a court during the school holidays and watch court proceedings. You don't usually need to ask for permission, but it might be polite to email them first - there is always a contact email on the court website.

East Berkshire Magistrates Court (Slough): TV-BerkshireMCEnq@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk

Reading Magistrates Court: TV-BerkshireMCEnq@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk

Reading Crown Court: enquiries@reading.crowncourt.gsi.gov.uk

Journalism

The Guardian newspaper run a series of short courses for aspiring journalists - some of them are run by well-known Guardian columnists.

There is a fee for them, but quite a reasonable one. Click HERE to find out more.

You can also click HERE to read a guide to work experience in media from Success at School.

Finance

Click HERE to read a guide to work experience in finance and accountancy from Success at School.

Success at School

Click on the Success at School link to visit a great list of current work experience opportunities to be applied for with a range of organisations such as the National Trust and JP Morgan.

Prospects

The Prospects careers website has lots of useful tips on both work experience and volunteering. Click HERE to access the starter page. 

Rate My Apprenticeship

This website has an excellent guide to work experience, including a list of large companies and organisations that regularly offer it. Click HERE to read the feature.

Volunteering

People choose to volunteer for a variety of reasons. For some it offers the chance to give something back to the community or make a difference to the people around them. For others it provides an opportunity to develop new skills or build on existing experience and knowledge. Regardless of the motivation, what unites them all is that they find it both challenging and rewarding. 

What could be better than a chance to make a difference AND make your CV look great AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Check out some local volunteering opportunities by clicking on the link to the Slough Volunteer Centre below:

http://www.volunteerslough.org.uk