United Bristol Healthcare Trust
Block Work Experience

September of Year 10 – the start of GCSE courses.

Work experience week will not be until June, but students have been told by the school’s Vocational Coordinator in PSHE lessons that it is never too early to plan their work experience placements.

Emma begins looking into where she might work, using the resources of the school Connexions library. She is particularly interested in science, and wonders if there is any way she could find a placement that would use her skills and knowledge in this subject.

The school’s Vocational Coordinator organises a class visit to an open day at the local NHS Trust. Emma had always thought that only doctors and nurses worked in the Health Service, but she learns that there is a much wider range of employment opportunities there than she had imagined. She has never aimed for a career in medicine, but she finds out that there are many other ways that she could apply her interest in science on a placement in the Trust.

October

• full contact details, including a phone number and email address
• the dates of work experience week
• her date of birth
• her preferred area of work – the pharmacy
• information about her academic achievement, including a Curriculum Vitae (CV) which she prepares in PSHE lessons.

January

UBHT receives requests for placements are received from schools and young people during the year, these are all dealt with in January. The Voluntary Services Department sends Emma’s request to the Director of the Pharmacy, who makes a risk assessment and decides that they are happy to consider an application.

Emma receives an application form which she completes and returns within a fortnight.

February

Voluntary Services do not hold general interviews as there are too many applicants. However, individual departments do sometimes hold their own interviews, and Emma is invited to the Pharmacy Director’s office at the hospital for an interview. She uses this as an opportunity to discuss some projects she might carry out during her placement. The Director agrees two investigations that Emma can do – into workplace hazards and how observations and measurements are recorded. Emma also makes sure that she knows

• her working hours
• where she should go to start her first day
• who she should report to on the first day
• arrangements for lunch break
• the Trust’s dress code.

Two weeks later Emma receives a letter inviting her to a week’s work experience in June. She writes immediately to accept the offer, and keeps the Trust’s letter in a safe place in case she needs to show it at the hospital when she starts her work experience there.

In the Trust’s accepted applications are signed off by the Voluntary Services Manager. They are not valid otherwise.

June

Along with all the other young people starting work experience that day, Emma is given a general induction to work in the Trust, including:

• reading and signing a confidentiality agreement
• rules about data protection
• fire safety
• health and safety.

When she goes to the Pharmacy, she is given a separate induction into the department’s working practices which includes health and safety. One of the more experienced members of staff is assigned to Emma as a mentor and helps her to find the resources and personnel she needs for her two science-based projects.

At the end of the week, Emma has a review meeting with her mentor and arranges to make some further working visits to the pharmacy during the summer holidays.

When she is back at school, Emma writes a thank-you letter to her hosts at the Pharmacy, and her science teacher helps her to adapt one of her projects as part of her GCSE coursework. A report on her week is also used as a piece of coursework for English.

With thanks to Jenny Thorne and Julie Hellens from the United Bristol Healthcare Trust.

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