Are workshops appealing to Oxford and other high tier universities?

I'm enquring whether on not I should cut my summer holiday short (I've excluded myself from family holidays before in the past in the name of school...) in order to participate in this workshop that is' quote on quote, 'summer training sessions for those aspiring to do a science degree'. These activities include things like micropipette training and gel extraction of DNA to name a few.

Is this worth doing or should I just stick to work experience and other 'stuff'? To summarise, do high tier unis like workshops and would it make me look more appealing?

I would truly appreciate a response.

I'm enquring whether on not I should cut my summer holiday short (I've excluded myself from family holidays before in the past in the name of school...) in order to participate in this workshop that is' quote on quote, 'summer training sessions for those aspiring to do a science degree'. These activities include things like micropipette training and gel extraction of DNA to name a few.

Is this worth doing or should I just stick to work experience and other 'stuff'? To summarise, do high tier unis like workshops and would it make me look more appealing?

I would truly appreciate a response.

Hi!
I was in the same position as you were at the begging of the year. I had toc hoose between summer holidays and my devotion to sciences. I applied to a bunch of summer school and I got in. I chose summer schools and reading insteadof holidays because I wanted to…. It was not meant to boost my Oxford application. I did it for my sake. I knew that I had a decent amount of knowledge in the theoretical part of the course (If you were to interview me now*biology*, I would be prepared 100%) but I definitely knew that I had a lack of advanced practical work. So I decided to go to these summer international schools and I had a bunch of fun. Now I am able to do the PCR, Gel Electrophoresis, the whole DNA sequencing including DNA extraction, confocal microscopy and I started annotating some genes by using bioinformatics (Python).Yes, I am really tired but I am satisfied because sciences mean everything to me and these summer schools were just an excuse to miss my family holidays (ya I know I am weird). If you were to wake me up in the middle of the night to study biology I would be so happy (ok I am getting to weird now, srry)
I will definitely mention this in my PS and I know that it will not drastically boost my application but I am gonna write about it since this was an unforgettable experience and it made me understand and think about science in a totally new way.
As I can see, you prefer holidays rather than workshops. Definitely go to holidays!
When and to which course are you applying?

To be perfectly honest the most important things by far are (i) your interview performance (ii) your performance in admissions tests and (iii) your AS grades. Obviously it's also important to show that you're interested in the subject and taking part in stuff like this is a way of demonstrating it, however, so is stuff like reading around the subject and they're not really supposed to give you an advantage simply having gone to an event like this which, I'm assuming, is probably fairly expensive. So if you think it looks interesting and you'd rather do it than go on a family holiday then go ahead, but if the main reason is to boost your Oxford application then I'd advise against it because there are plenty of other equally as useful things that you could be doing, e.g. reading.

Thanks for the prompt response. This may sound like a silly question, but would it depend on A2 grades only or both A2 and AS grades if you decide to take a gap year? Ive read on a few threads that gap years are fine and many people have actually had successful applications IF the gap year is used wisely. What's your take on it?