How to Get Work Experience While Studying: The Practical Guide for Young People in the UK
Society · Guide
How to Get Work Experience While Studying: The Practical Guide for Young People in the UK
You hear it all the time: you need experience to get a job but you need a job to get experience. This guide cuts through that and shows you exactly how to build a CV that employers actually care about, while you are still studying, without connections, without money, and without waiting to graduate.
Who this guide is for
This guide is for secondary school students in Years 10 to 13, college students, university undergraduates and postgraduates in the UK. Whether you want to get into law, medicine, business, tech, media, the arts, or you have no idea yet what you want to do, this guide has something for you. All the resources listed are free unless we specifically say otherwise.
Quick read: key points
- Internships and prior work experience are more decisive in getting a first job than the degree itself, according to 22% of graduates in the 2025 Cengage Employability Report, versus 17% who cited their degree. You need experience. Your degree alone is not enough.
- You do not need connections to start. Speculative emails, virtual work experience platforms, your university careers service, LinkedIn and the National Careers Service are all free starting points available to everyone in the UK right now.
- Most large UK employers now offer structured work experience for school and college students. BAE Systems, KPMG, PwC, Savills, the NHS, the Met Office and many more run formal programmes for 14 to 18 year olds. You do not need to know someone there to apply.
- Experience does not have to mean a formal internship. Part-time jobs, volunteering, societies, sports clubs, side projects, student journalism, music, and community work all provide evidence of real skills if you learn to describe them the right way.
- 76% of UK employers said they had difficulty recruiting skilled talent in 2025, according to the ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey. They are not turning graduates away because there are too many. They are struggling to find people with the right skills. Getting experience while you study is the most direct way to become one of those people.
- Start early. Large graduate scheme and internship deadlines often fall in October and November of the year before you want to start. If you are waiting until your final year to think about experience, you may have already missed the window for some employers.
Key terms
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Work experience | A broad term covering any time you spend in a workplace learning what a job or industry is like. Ranges from a one-day school visit to a year-long sandwich placement. Usually unpaid or low-paid at school level; usually paid at university level. |
| Internship | A structured period of work, usually 4 to 12 weeks, often over summer. Mostly aimed at undergraduates in their penultimate year or recent graduates. The majority of genuine internships at reputable employers are paid. If you are doing work that benefits the employer, you are generally entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage. |
| Work placement or sandwich year | A year-long period of work experience embedded in a university degree, usually between Year 2 and Year 3. Students on placement years consistently have better graduate employment outcomes than those who do not. Also called an industrial placement or a year in industry. |
| Insight day or spring insight | A one or two-day event run by employers to give students an introduction to their firm or sector. Often aimed at first-year undergraduates or Year 12 school students. Many are paid or at least cover expenses. Excellent route into a longer internship at the same company the following year. |
| Virtual work experience | A structured programme that simulates workplace tasks and projects, completed online. Has grown significantly since 2020. Platforms including Springpod, Bright Network, Barclays LifeSkills and Forage offer virtual programmes across many sectors. Recognised by employers and valuable on a CV. |
| Volunteering | Giving time to support an organisation or cause without pay. Counts as real experience on a CV. Demonstrates reliability, commitment and soft skills. Can be done alongside studying with flexible time commitments. |
| Speculative application | Sending a CV and covering email to a company or organisation that has not advertised a specific vacancy, to ask if they have any opportunity for work experience. Works particularly well for small businesses and organisations that do not run formal schemes. |
| National Minimum Wage (NMW) | The minimum hourly pay rate set by the government. As of April 2026, the NMW for 16 to 17 year olds is £7.55 per hour, for 18 to 20 year olds it is £10.85 per hour and the National Living Wage for 21 and above is £12.71. Most genuine paid internships must pay at least these rates. |
| Transferable skills | Skills that are useful across different jobs and industries. Communication, problem-solving, teamwork, time management and leadership are examples. You build them in every area of life, not just in formal work settings. |
| Commercial awareness | Understanding how businesses and organisations work, how they make money or stay funded and what challenges they face. One of the most commonly requested skills by graduate employers. Developed through reading business news, following companies you are interested in and asking smart questions on placements. |
Why experience matters more than ever in 2026
The UK graduate job market in 2026 is the most competitive it has been in five years. Some large employers are receiving around 140 applications per graduate vacancy. When everyone has a degree, a degree alone does not make you stand out. What makes you stand out is what you did with your time while you were studying.
The Cengage Group 2025 Graduate Employability Report, which draws on data from employers, recent graduates and educators, found that only 57% of graduates felt their degree had adequately prepared them for their first professional role. It also found that personal referrals and prior work experience were more decisive in securing a first job than the degree itself. The degree gets you to the starting line. Experience wins the race.
What employers are actually looking for
According to the ManpowerGroup 2025 Talent Shortage Survey, 76% of UK employers report difficulty finding skilled people. The top skills in demand in the UK in 2025, according to Prospects and employer surveys, are communication, problem-solving, digital confidence, adaptability, teamwork and commercial awareness. These are not skills you develop in a lecture theatre. They are skills you develop by doing real things in the world. Part-time work, volunteering, societies, sports clubs, student journalism, music groups and community projects all build these skills if you show up consistently and take them seriously.
The seven routes to experience while studying
These are the main routes available to students in the UK. Some are more relevant at school level, some at university. Most are available to everyone. You do not need to pursue all of them. Pick the ones that fit your situation and your goals and go deep rather than spreading yourself thin.
Route 1: Formal school and college work experience schemes
If you are in Years 10 to 13, some of the UK’s largest employers run specific programmes designed for you. You do not need connections. You apply online like anyone else. Current programmes for 2026 include: BAE Systems (Engineering Taster Weeks, ages 16 to 18, July); KPMG (Discovery Work Experience, Year 12 students, paid, three days in August); PwC (New World New Skills, four-day programme, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds); Met Office (three-day in-person placement, Years 10 to 13); NHS (health careers work experience, search via NHS Health Careers website); Savills (Apprenticeship Insight programme, final-year A-level students, one week in June and August); Slaughter and May (Talent Development programme, Years 12 and 13, London Living Wage paid, for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds). Search Springpod, Speakers for Schools, In2Science and your local authority’s website for more options in your area.
Route 2: Virtual work experience
Virtual experience programmes let you do real tasks and projects from home, usually over a few days to a few weeks. They are free, flexible and increasingly recognised by employers. Platforms to use: Springpod (springpod.com) offers hundreds of programmes from employers including the NHS, Shell, BBC and Civil Service; Bright Network (brightnetwork.co.uk) runs Internship Experience UK, a structured virtual programme for university students; Forage (theforage.com) has free job simulations from Goldman Sachs, PwC, JP Morgan, Deloitte, BCG, HSBC and more; Barclays LifeSkills (barclayslifeskills.com) and Accenture Skills to Succeed offer free career skill-building. Virtual experience on your CV shows initiative and industry interest, particularly if you have not yet had in-person experience.
Route 3: University internships and placements
If you are at university, your careers service is the single best resource you have and most students barely use it. Every UK university has one. Most advertise internships, placement years and insight events that are not available anywhere else. Start there. Additionally, large graduate employers typically open their summer internship applications in October and November for the following summer. You need to be in your penultimate year for most structured programmes, but first-years can apply for insight days and spring schemes. Key platforms for university students: Handshake, TARGETjobs, Milkround, Gradcracker, Bright Network, 10,000 Interns (for under-represented groups). Your university may also have its own internship fund. Many offer grants of up to £500 to support unpaid placements.
Route 4: Speculative applications to local businesses
Most work experience does not get advertised. Small and medium businesses often welcome a student for a week or two but would never spend time writing a job post about it. A well-written email asking for a short placement, with a brief CV attached, works remarkably well. Keep it short: who you are, what you want, why you chose them specifically, what you can offer and when you are available. Target businesses in sectors you are genuinely interested in. Send ten emails. Expect two or three responses. One might become a placement. This is how the majority of secondary school students find work experience, and it is just as effective for university students pursuing niche industries that do not run formal programmes.
Route 5: Volunteering
Volunteering is real experience. It demonstrates reliability, commitment and care for something beyond your own CV. It builds communication and teamwork skills that employers explicitly ask for. It can be done around a school or university timetable. And it counts on applications. Where to find it: Do-it (do-it.org) is the UK’s main volunteering database; Volunteering Matters (volunteeringmatters.org.uk) focuses on young people; your student union will have volunteering options; local charities, food banks, community gardens, libraries and sports clubs all take regular volunteers. If you want to work in healthcare, law, social work, teaching or the public sector, volunteering in a relevant setting is often expected and sometimes required. Even if your career direction has nothing to do with charity, consistent volunteering over six months or a year demonstrates exactly the qualities employers struggle to find: reliability, initiative and genuine commitment to others.
Route 6: Student societies, sports clubs and campus roles
Running a society, organising events, managing a budget, leading a team, writing for a student newspaper, producing a podcast, running social media for a student club: these are all real skills. They are also the evidence employers are looking for when they ask for examples of leadership, teamwork and initiative. Every university graduate who became president of a society ran events, managed people, handled budgets and solved problems under pressure. They just did it without getting paid for it. Do not underestimate what you are building in extracurricular activities. The mistake is not doing them but failing to describe what you did in a way that connects it to the skills employers want. A career service or the National Careers Service can help you make that translation.
Route 7: Part-time jobs and side projects
Retail, hospitality, tutoring, care work, delivery, customer service: if you have worked any part-time job, you have experience. Working with customers under pressure, handling complaints, managing your time, being reliable and showing up: these are exactly the behaviours graduate employers say are missing from many applications. A side project, whether you built a website, started a small business, made videos, coded an app or ran a community group, is a portfolio of evidence. The key is describing what you did in terms of skills and impact, not just what the role was. Not what you did but what you achieved, solved, built or improved.
Your rights if you do a work experience placement
| Situation | Your rights |
|---|---|
| School work experience (arranged by school) | Unpaid placements arranged through school for students under 16 are legal. Schools have a duty of care. The employer must carry out risk assessments. |
| You are doing work that benefits the employer | If you are genuinely contributing to the business rather than just observing, you are likely a worker and entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage. Age 16 to 17: £7.55 per hour. Age 18 to 20: £10.85. Age 21 and above: £12.71 (National Living Wage). These are the April 2026 rates. |
| You are a university student on a work placement that is a required part of your course | Placements that are an integral part of a higher education course are exempt from NMW if they last less than one year. Many employers pay anyway, and the majority of large employers’ sandwich placements are paid. |
| You are shadow-only, not doing productive work | Pure job shadowing where you observe and do not contribute to the commercial operation is not paid work. You are not a worker. |
| An employer offers an unpaid internship for work you are clearly doing | This is likely illegal. Unpaid internships are most common in creative industries and media, but they are not legal if you are doing work the business benefits from. You can check at gov.uk/national-minimum-wage or contact ACAS for advice. |
How to describe your experience to employers
Having experience is only half the challenge. The other half is describing it in a way that makes an employer understand what you actually did and why it matters. Most students sell themselves short by describing what they were rather than what they achieved.
| Weak description | Strong description | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| I helped in a coffee shop | I managed customer transactions and handled complaints during busy service periods, maintaining positive customer relationships under pressure | Connects the job to the skills: communication, composure, customer service |
| I volunteered at a food bank | I coordinated weekly food distribution for 40 to 50 families, organised stock rotation and helped onboard new volunteers | Shows scale, initiative and a specific contribution beyond showing up |
| I was president of the film society | I led a committee of six people, managed a budget of £3,000, organised six public events and grew membership from 40 to 120 over one academic year | Quantified evidence of leadership, financial management and growth |
| I did a one-week placement at a law firm | I sat with solicitors during client meetings, researched three cases using legal databases and drafted a brief summarising my findings, which a senior associate reviewed | Specific tasks with a clear output. Employers can picture what you actually did |
The STAR method for describing experience
Use STAR when answering application questions or interview questions about your experience. Situation: briefly set the context. Task: what were you trying to achieve or what problem were you solving. Action: what you specifically did (not your team, you). Result: what happened as a result of what you did. Keep it short: two to three sentences per element is enough. A weak answer says what you were. A strong answer says what you did and what changed because of it.
Your action plan: what to do this week
| If you are in | Do this first | Then do this |
|---|---|---|
| Year 10 or 11 | Ask your school careers coordinator what work experience is arranged and research three sectors you find interesting online | Set up a Springpod account and complete one free virtual programme. Sign up to Speakers for Schools for free insight talks from professionals. |
| Year 12 or 13 | Apply to one structured employer scheme before October (KPMG, PwC, BAE, NHS, Savills are all currently open or opening soon). Use your sixth form careers coordinator to help with the application. | Send speculative emails to three local businesses in a sector you are interested in. Keep it short and specific. Attach a simple CV. |
| First year of university | Register with your university careers service and attend at least one event this term. Sign up for spring insight events and insight days through Bright Network or TARGETjobs. | Set up a LinkedIn profile if you do not already have one. Connect with your university alumni network. Start reading industry news for sectors you are considering. |
| Second year of university (penultimate year) | This is your most important window. Apply for summer internships before November. Applications open much earlier than most students realise. Use your careers service deadlines tracker. | Consider a placement year if your course offers one. Students who do placements consistently have better graduate employment outcomes and often receive job offers from their placement employer. |
| Final year of university | Use previous experience as the foundation for graduate scheme and job applications. Make sure every piece of experience is described in skills terms, not just job-title terms. | Use your careers service for mock interviews and application reviews. Most also have alumni mentoring programmes. A 30-minute conversation with someone two years ahead of you is one of the most efficient things you can do. |
Free platforms and tools: where to look
| Platform or resource | Best for | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Springpod | Virtual work experience and in-person placements for school and college students. NHS, BBC, Shell, Civil Service and many more. | springpod.com |
| Bright Network | University internships, graduate schemes, insight events and the free Internship Experience UK virtual programme. | brightnetwork.co.uk |
| Forage | Free virtual job simulations from major employers: Goldman Sachs, PwC, Deloitte, JP Morgan, HSBC, BCG and many others. | theforage.com |
| TARGETjobs | Internships and graduate jobs across all sectors. Strong on law, finance, engineering and public sector. | targetjobs.co.uk |
| Speakers for Schools | Free talks and experience programmes from professionals, aimed at state school students aged 14 to 25. | speakersforschools.org |
| National Careers Service | Free one-to-one career advice, CV help and guidance on work experience routes for anyone in England. | 0800 100 900. nationalcareers.service.gov.uk |
| Do-it | UK volunteering opportunities database. Filters by location, time commitment and area of interest. | do-it.org |
| 10,000 Interns Foundation | Paid internships specifically for under-represented students, particularly Black, Asian and minority ethnic students and disabled students. | 10000internsfoundation.com |
| Barclays LifeSkills | Free online modules developing practical skills for work: CV writing, interview preparation, enterprise skills and money management. Good for Year 10 upwards. | barclayslifeskills.com |
| Your university careers service | Exclusive internships, placement year support, employer events, application reviews, mock interviews and alumni connections. The most underused resource in higher education. | Search your university name plus careers service |
Sources used in this guide
Cengage Group, 2025 Graduate Employability Report, September 2025. Source for the finding that internships and prior work experience are more decisive in securing a first job than the degree itself (22% vs 17%), and for only 57% of graduates feeling their degree prepared them adequately.
ManpowerGroup, Talent Shortage Survey 2025. Source for 76% of UK employers reporting difficulty recruiting skilled talent.
Prospects.ac.uk, What skills do employers want?, April 2026. Source for the top five in-demand skills in the UK in 2025 and for the description of transferable skills employers consistently request.
Prospects.ac.uk, Year 12 Work Experience 2026, April 2026. Primary source for specific employer programmes including KPMG Discovery Work Experience, BAE Systems Engineering Taster Weeks, PwC New World New Skills, Savills Apprenticeship Insight and Slaughter and May Talent Development programme.
Prospects.ac.uk, Internships, March 2026. Source for NMW rates (NMW for 18 to 20 year olds at £10.85, NLW at £12.71, April 2026), the legal framework for intern pay, and the definition of when internships are and are not exempt from NMW.
National Careers Service, GOV.UK, Types of work experience. Primary source for descriptions of virtual work experience, internships, volunteering and job shadowing, and National Careers Service contact details.
GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage rates, April 2026. Source for all NMW figures: £7.55 (age 16 to 17), £10.85 (age 18 to 20), £12.71 (NLW, age 21 and above).
UKey Coach, UK Graduate Job Market 2026: What Students Can Control. Source for the figure of approximately 140 applications per graduate vacancy at some large employers in 2025, and for the analysis of what differentiates successful applications.
Pemberton et al., British Educational Research Journal, 2026. Source for the finding that students on professional degree subjects and those with work-integrated learning opportunities have measurably better early employment outcomes.
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