[ColyTom]

Hi,

I am soon to be starting the third year of my psychology degree, so it is time to prepare for the next steps.

I understand that experience as an assistant clinical psychologist is important to getting onto postgraduate training but how important is it to do a Master's and/or gain experience as a research assistant. Some places I have seen recommend these but others make no mention of it.

Also, how important would extra experience working (volunteering) in the mental health sector abroad be?

[Lord Asriel]

You don't necessarily need to have an assistant job before getting onto clinical training (I didn't), but its more about having relevant experience, that is paid and psychologically substantial. You can do this as an AP/RA or as an IAPT worker, or youth offending or any number of mental health related roles in and out of the NHS.

A Masters is a popular choice, especially if you need to beef up your academic credentials, but by itself will not get you that far. You will still need relevant experience and enough material to reflect on to show that you are a good candidate for training.

Volunteering is a good starting point that many trainees use as a stepping stone to other jobs. As you usually need experience to get an Assistant post in the first place, its one way, but be aware that its often hard to get direct therapy exposure due to confidentiality.

Also increasingly some psychologists are seeing honorary posts as potentially exploitative, and may be skewing entry to those that can afford to work unpaid, so not everywhere will take volunteers.

[~ Purple Rose ~]

www.do-it.org.uk is a good place to start looking for work experience. Getting experience abroad couldn't hurt, but they will want to see that you have got some in this country, and an understanding of how the NHS works etc.