Work experience is an excellent opportunity to explore the wide range of careers available within the NHS. It helps you gain valuable insight and practical experience to support your future career decisions, whether you’re in college, applying to university, or looking to build experience before starting employment. 

Our Purpose

We aim to provide high-quality opportunities that give you a genuine insight into the culture and day-to-day experience of working in the health sector.

Why Work Experience Matters

Work experience offers an introduction to the professional behaviours expected in the workplace, such as effective communication, punctuality, and treating people with respect. These skills are essential for success in any healthcare role.

Supporting Your Career Journey

For those considering a career in healthcare, work experience is a valuable stepping stone. It not only helps you understand the environment but is often vital for higher education applications and future employment.
 

Our work experience placements are unpaid and last for a maximum of 5 days, giving you a genuine insight into life within the NHS. We are unable to offer placements at weekends or on Bank Holidays

Hours: Typically between 09:00 and 16:00, depending on what each department can offer.

Eligibility: we prioritise those who live or study within South Warwickshire.

Please note work experience does not include longer industry placements (T-levels).
Available year-round to applicants aged 15+ for non-clinical areas and 16+ for clinical areas (please note some departments require 17 or 18+).

Departments: We offer a wide range of placements across both clinical and non-clinical settings, so there’s something for everyone interested in healthcare careers.

Examples of Departments

Clinical Areas:

  • Nursing
  • Radiology
  • Audiology
  • Physiotherapy (1 week planned rotational placement)
  • Theatres (18+)
  • Anaesthetics & Recovery (18+)
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Medicine (including Endocrinology/Diabetes, Trauma & Orthopaedics, Cardiology, Urology, Gastroenterology, A&E, Rheumatology) some areas will be 18+

We cannot offer work experience in our Emergency Department or Maternity, Obstetric and Gynaecological departments.

Non-Clinical Areas:

  • Administration
  • Finance & Financial Management
  • Human Resources
  • Portering
  • Chaplaincy
  • Outpatients Medical Records
  • Governance
  • PALS (Patient Advice & Liaison Service)
  • Stores
  • Tissue Viability Admin
  • Communications
  • Business Development
  • Health Records
  • Estates

We run various workshops across the year, check out this link for our upcoming events.

The NHS offers online work-related learning through Springpod, providing an excellent introduction to various healthcare careers and helping you prepare for in-person work experience.

This is open to students aged from 13 years living in the South East of England.

Each program takes six to eight hours to complete at your own pace with a certificate on completion.

The following areas are available:

How to apply

Please complete our Microsoft Forms application process to apply for work experience at South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust via the link: SWFT Work Experience Application Form – Fill in form

Applications will be submitted directly to The Talent for Care Team who will liaise with the departments to arrange placement requests. Once the department has confirmed the request, Talent for Care Team will inform you on the details of your placement, confirmation will be provided via email within 14 working days from submitting your application.

Applications are processed on an individual basis, so we can consider any reasonable adjustments required and department availability.

Due to a high number of work experience applications, priority will be given to those living or studying within the Warwickshire area.

Please note: All sections of the application form must be completed correctly for it to be submitted. There is a maximum of 5 days’ work experience per person. You may be offered less than 5 days, depending on department capacity.

Other Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trusts:

Please email the above Trusts for information on their work experience process as it may differ from South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust’s process.

For applicants Information

In order to ensure and monitor that we provide opportunities to people from all backgrounds, we ask all prospective work experience candidates to complete all of the questions on the application form to the best of their ability. This information is stored securely, and any personal information is anonymised when used for reporting purposes. Please ensure that a parent, guardian or responsible adult (e.g. Teacher) is notified of your application and is given the opportunity to review the information you provide. If you have any questions about the application process please do not hesitate to contact the Talent for Care Team at talentforcare@swft.nhs.uk