Work experience partnerships
If you are an employer looking to offer work experience to young people, or a teacher looking to develop more experiences of the workplace for your students, then get in touch.
The South Yorkshire health and care education and careers team helps schools partner with a local care home, health centre, pharmacy, opticians or other local healthcare employers to create lasting work experience partnership. We have a tried and tested model which is easy to manage for both parties.
Contact SYREC ADMIN to discuss your partnership opportunities.
Read about the work experience partnership between Pitsmoor Surgery and Fir Vale Secondary School in Sheffield
Guide for health and care employers: Starting your partnership between a local school or college
Thank you for being part in this important project, partnering with your local secondary school or college to provide much needed work experiences to pupils.
Your partnership will support the school to achieve Gatsby Benchmark 6, one of eight measures that ensure students receive good careers guidance. It also helps inspire and attract young people into careers within the health and social care, by offering them new opportunities in their local community.
This guidance includes information about who can offer work experiences using the partnership model, models of work experience, a toolkit of resources, sample timetables and sample objectives to help you create a successful session. Once you get started you can use these to adapt to your own service.
We invite interest from any health or social care or VCSE service including (but not limited to):
- Care homes
- GP practices and health centres
- Re-enablement teams
- Pharmacies
- Dental practices
- High street opticians, audiological services, chiropodists, chiropractors etc
- Mental health trusts
- NHS Blood and Transplant and other lab-based services
- Ambulance services
- Acute trusts
To support your partnership and visits to your surgery we have a toolkit. Here are details about that toolkit and how to use the resources.
Click on the links to download the word document - feel free to adapt to your service.
- Frequently asked questions: Providing tips and advice on managing the relationship with your local school, roles and responsibilities, risk management and safeguarding
- Hints and Tips for ambassadors: You may want to share this information with any job holder ambassadors who will be interacting with the students in advance of the site visit.
- Patient journey example: A great way to bring the job holder roles to life is by using an example of a patient journey. Please feel free to create your own version to help showcase the job roles that students will meet during their work experience visit with you.
- Worksheet: This is for the students to complete at the beginning of the session. At the end of the session students can compare their answers against their new learning and reflect on this new knowledge
- Worksheet Answers: The answer sheet for the above.
- Preparing Students for their visit: Includes patient/client confidentiality awareness and a list of suggested questions students could ask job holder ambassadors to gain as much information as possible about the job role. Feel free to share this with your school point of contact in advance of the session, or you can share with students on the day.
- Evaluation form: To measure impact of your work experience visit.
We have trialled three types of visits. You may want to replicate one of these offers or try a bespoke model of your own
Option A: Year 10 students (aged 14-15) visit for up to two hours. During this time, they meet a range of different job holders and get some hands-on practical time too. The object of the visit is to give students with an interest in Health and Social Care careers more insight into the careers available and to have chance to ‘feel’ if this type of work is for them. Activities are mainly ‘classroom’ based but may include site tour.
Option B: College students (aged 16-18) visit for up to two days. During this time they meet a range of different job holders, get hands-on practical time, follow patient journeys, apply problem solving skills and take part in simulation to re-enact real life scenarios. The object of the visit is to give students with an interest in Health and Social Care careers significant insight into roles, careers and working in the sector. Activities are classroom/sim based.
Option C: is aimed at aspiring medics from Years 12 and 13. Students meet GP’s and/or trainee GPs to have informed conversations, gain advice and support for their UCAS applications into medicine and to explore plan B career options, for the just in case. Activities may include some element of work shadowing.
You may offer any combination of site visits to your partner school or college.
During the work experience students will:
- Assess their prior knowledge and build onto this knowledge
- Meet a variety of job holders and ask questions; to learn about their job roles, the skills and qualifications required, routes into the roles and opportunities for career progression.
- Learn about the services provided by the Employer Organisation to the local community and the importance of this service in the prevention, assessment and treatment of ill health or supporting people with conditions to live a dignified life.
- Experience hands-on equipment used by the job holder e.g., pulse oximetry, blood pressure monitor, listening to the heart / lungs through a stethoscope etc
- Learn about multi-professional job roles through the example of a theoretical patient journey to understand how roles fit in.
- Take part in a summary reflection and Q&A session.
- Complete an evaluation
Example for a 2-hour work experience
Duration and activity
- 15 mins Welcome, introduction and housekeeping. Students undertake worksheet and review answers.
- 20 mins Students meet job holders during a site tour
- 20 mins Patient journey
- 10 mins Comfort break & refreshments
- 20 mins Hands-on activities
- 15 mins Q&A session with a selected job holder
- 10 mins Students revisit the worksheet, add notes and reflections
- 10 mins Evaluation and close
Example 2: Timetable for a 2-day work experience
Day 1
Activity
09:00 - 09:30 Welcome and introductions. Quiz - test your knowledge
09:30 - 10:00Job holder 1: Nurse educator - my story
10:00 - 10:30 Video of NHS jobs and quiz
10:30 - 11:00 Break
11:00 - 12:00 Job holder 2: Occupational therapist
12:00 - 12:30 Lunch
12:30 - 13:00 Sim lab visit
13:00 - 14:00 Job holder 3: Maternity services
14:00 - 14:30 Reflect on today and expectations for tomorrow