Work experience Ideas

Okay, so im going into A levels and i want to start gaining work experience so it will look good for when i apply to uni and beyond. Any ideas?

Reply 1

Purple

Working/Observing children in education
Assistant to a Psychologist

Reply 2

Melana

I worked in a nursery that had 2 autistic children in it, and also helped out in a children's bereavement counselling workship thing, both of which seemed to go down well with the Unis. The latter would be very difficult to do because of police checking and stuff, but in general, anything volunteery that you could relate to psychology - autism would be a particularly good one.

Reply 3

8owman

I was a teaching assistant during my free lessons in a local primary school. Any kind of work with children is good because you can relate it to developmental psychology (e.g. I talked about Vygotsky's theory of 'scaffolding' in relation to how I helped the children).

Reply 4

cat_meiow

Ok kind of related to this thread but a bit further down the time line. I'm going into my second year at uni on my psychology degree and i want to do some direct work experience in the psychological field. Not really certain about what area to focus on but i was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how i should go about doing this?

Is it possible to shadow psychologists?

Any help would really be appreciated as im kind of confused at the moment and want to get some insight before i go back to uni, thanks :smile:

Reply 5

8owman

Well i'm no expert (i'll only be a fresher in October) but i'm kinda in the same boat what with wanting persue a career in psychology. I'm volunteering at my local Mind charity, which is not directly linked to a specific branch of psych but will enhance your cv. Take a look at www.mind.org.uk.

Reply 6

sokas

It's quite hard with psychology to gain specific experience, some places require police checks etc and certain places you have to be over 18. When I was applying I did voluntary work in a school (child development?), work experience in a law firm (criminal mind?) school councelling...etc. You really need to just try and get experience in places linked to psychology

Reply 7

LatinMachine

I volunteered once a week at my local Primary School, and mentored some Year 11s and Year 7s. Right now I'm working as a Health Care Assistant at my local hospital, which I really recommend, but I think you have to be 18 to do it. Anything relating to people and/or volunteering is bound to impress.

Edit: with regards to shadowing psychologists, I wrote to an Ed. Psych to ask if I could but she said no due to confidentiality issues. I think this applies to most psychologists.

Reply 8

Kingers

Moderator on a teen advice site. talking about drugs etc
Answering emails ^

Reply 9

Gem

It's difficult to get paid/voluntary work in any area of psychology due to 'confidentialiy' issues.

However there are a whole range of things you can get into, such as working in:

Home for Elderly (Amnesia, dementia etc)
School (Developmental)
Home for Learning Disabilities (Abnormal)
Home for Mental Disorders (Abnormal)
Helplines, Samaritans etc (Abnormal)

Hmmm I'll think of more in the morning when I'm more awake :redface:

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