How about Work Experience?

Work experience is useful for a number of reasons, including finding out that the job is not what you want to do!

Although work experience in an area where you might want to work in future is very useful, it is not always easy to find useful work experience, particularly when you are still at school.

Pre-16 students:

It is difficult to get experience in a laboratory or other industrial setting at this age because if you are not studying post-16 science courses you are unlikely to achieve the maximum benefit from such placements due to lack of understanding of the science involved. Hospitals also don’t normally take students of this age for work experience.

The opportunity to carry out a work experience placement is, however, valuable even if it is unrelated to a future career. Some pharmaceutical companies offer work experience in office areas to local students.

Paid work - a job at the weekend or in the evenings - also counts as work experience and can sometimes also give an insight into careers in science. A job in a pharmacy, for example, would be relevant to anyone interested in a medically related career.

16-18:

Some pharmaceutical companies offer one week or longer placements during school holidays. However, these are only likely to be offered to local students. Details may be available on company websites. See the Pharmaceutical Recruiters section of this site to find companies in your local area who you can approach.

You may be able to access some relevant experience through applying for a Nuffield Bursary Placement. These are often in industry or at universities, run for a period of 4-6 weeks and are carried out during the summer holidays between Year 12 and 13. You will be set a project to carry out during this period, normally something of relevance to the organisation. Information on these can be found on the Nuffield website.

Gap year placements are offered by some companies. See their websites for further details.

Thinking ahead to university:

Some university courses offer a ‘year in industry’ (sometimes called a sandwich or industrial placement year) as part of their course, these are invaluable and should always be taken up if offered. The year is paid at a rate that should allow you to live comfortably for the year, and may even allow you to save up something towards you final year at university.

Other universities offer shorter periods of industry based experience, these are also useful in helping you to develop skills that will be valued by future employers within the pharmaceutical industry.