The Student Room Group

Would working in a charity shop be useful work experience?

i know shadowing doctors and working in hospices are better but those are usually up to two weeks only. the hospices in my area don't seem to need any more volunteer places and some need me to be over 18 to volunteer.

:frown:

my school is trying to organise a 2 weeks work expierence in a hospital for me but having no idea if it would work i need to see alternative.

i don't have any connections to the medical school so i have no means of asking them.

would working in a charity shop be useful and such if i learn anything?
um, is this instead of ure work experience or as well as?
cos if it's as well as, then it's all good, if u keep at ure job for a while, you show that u're determined, reliable etc etc
its good generally on ure cv.

however, personally i think working with sick/people in need would be better if you had the choice. have you tried residential homes, schools for special needs children, soup kitchens, does ure hospital need volunteers for anything? bank nursing, maybe even helping at after school homework clubs?

i think the chartiy shop is a good idea, but i don't think u'll have any contact with ppl in need, to show ure caring etc.

keep tryin with the work experience. can't you find out dr's names in the hospital/gps and write to them directly? that's what i did, my school didn't organise too much for us.

good luck

xxxx
Reply 2
Depends what you get out of it and how you write it up. IMO, any form of work where you deal with the public and a team (+/- subordinates) is good experience, remember schools want team and people people.

Having said that, 'caring' work experience is very good, working as a HCA, for example, would tick a lot of boxes.
Reply 3
you could work for a charity but maybe not in a shop... what about a befriending society or some other communty volunteering...

check these out...

http://www.csv.org.uk/Volunteer/Volunteer+Home.htm
http://www.do-it.org.uk/wanttovolunteer/aboutvolunteering
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/
what is HCA?

anyway i did ask around but all i went to basically say i need to contact through the NHS. :frown:

im a full time student in a school which means i am not cant do most volunteer things during the weekdays and have to rely on things closer to home on weekends....

I've tried residential homes but they require people over 18.

im going to try this walk in clinic after half term but the chairty shop is a good idea right?
Reply 5
HCA is a health care assistant... used to be nursing auxillary.

you do direct hands on patient care, like washing, dressing, feeding and develops your communication and team working skills too.
Reply 6
And you get paid a hell of a lot more than you do for volunteering...
sounds like a full-time volunteering job...
Reply 8
With HCA, like nursing, you can do bank shifts - pick and choose when to work.

And you get paid, so it's not volunteering.

And you get involved, so it's better experience than volunteering.
that sounds so awesome

im going to try and get that job somewhere

i only got around 4 months to get decent work expierence as well

>_<