Planning to work for free or pay to get work experience

I am now doing Masters in Medical Microbiology. I have got 2:1 for Biomedical Science before.

I will finish my course this September. My career goal is to become a Biomedical Scientist. However a paid trainee position needs lab work experience and there is up to hundreds to compete a position. So I am planning to work unpaid after Masters. More often, hospitals are quite reluctant to take students for the placement. And nowadays many employers are now willing to train any graduates without prior work experience.

Here I come up an idea. I am willing to pay the company the training costs and not wanting any salary. My family is finanically supporting me and I can pay the money for up to a year of salary of a general staff (~£10000) so that they are willing to train me. Has anyone tried paying to get work experience in lab industry? This is not a joke and I am really serious about it.

no.....just like paying the tuition fees and reimbursing their training costs
for example if you apply for apprenticeship with a degree there will be no funding for employers. In this case the candidate may need to pay for the training costs

also I stated that I am willing to work unpaid too

Employers are unlikely to do this.

It isn't as simple as not paying you and you picking up any bills for training.

You are technically still headcount - this is something that often needs senior management sign off.

Even if you said you were happy to waiver any employment rights, the reality is you would be entitled to them (minimum wage/holiday etc).

Then they have to dedicate resource to training you - mainly other people's time. That might be something they haven't got.

And with the sector you are going into, employee liability is going to be important. If you screw up, I am guessing the implications could be significant. They are only going to put people into entry level roles where they have the necessary support to ensure they are doing a good job.



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i am regret to say that working for free is the only way to survive in current economic situation to get work experience and survive.

I do not have work experience because I cannot get a job, or vice versa

Just omit what I said before, this idea came upon my hopelessness after i was declined even for a shadowing request in the lab. I am actually not bothered to dump this lump sum into the ocean and i would rather invest bitcoins instead.

Is it possible for me to volunteer in university laboratory, ideally for about 3 months?

The problem is that many entry level jobs (eg. MLA) nowadays needs lab experience as well. Some labs (eg. university labs) require you to contribute towards the costs due to H&S.
If you go to some jobs agency website, you may see some private companies require 12 months lab experience to be a suitable candidate for a MLA position.
Also we need one year lab placement in order to register with HCPC and even some people are working unpaid during this year

Hello

I feel your pain. I hear so many students saying the same thing, they need experience just to get unpaid lab experience!

We have posted quite a few suggestions on our facebook page with advice on gaining lab experience. You may have already tried some of our suggestions, but hopefully there should be one or two you haven't tried yet. Check out our facebook page as we are always updating it with details on how to enter the job market and get more lab experience.

Best of luck in getting a position.

BioGrad
www.biograd.co.uk

Thanks so much. And it's first time that I hear there are such training courses. I tried finding it before the start of my masters but no result.

I understand staff needs to dedicate their time for training. So I will not hesitate to pay a year of their salary + working unpaid in order to get work experience. I would be responsible for all the costs incurred.

Getting industrial placement for a year is difficult even it is unpaid.......honestly I should consider taking a gap year after year two to work if I knew I could not get a placement at that time. I contact my current uni. now and they said volunteering is not considered after submission of dissertation in Sept but I still feel unassured.....

Back to normal, I am going to contact hospitals to arrange for lab visits first and then discuss about volunteer in their labs......hope it helps. I just need experience and I don't care for any money.

Then what are the effective ways to get lab experience? Pls do not forget, some entry level jobs need experience as well nowadays!

I have seen numerous cases of the BMS graduates secured their training placement, with no pay. It is not uncommon nowadays. I know there is liability insurance concern. It this involves extra cost I can pay for it too.

I even do not mind working voluntarily in supermarkets in order to get experience so that I can get the part time job easily in the future.

Can you not see the cause and effect of you doing this?

Soon we'd all be working for free ffs

This really. I wonder if people would pay to work for KFC ...

The government work trial scheme is doing like this!

The government work trial scheme is doing like this!