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Work Experience For Forensics?

Hello, I'm a sixteen-year-old Year 11 student in London who really wants to pursue Forensic Biology in the future. However, I'm aware that it is a very competitive field and I would like to gain as much experience as possible as a head start.

I missed the opportunity to gain work experience in Year 10 as I was in the process of transitioning to a new school, hence I missed my opportunity to do so then, but does anybody have an idea of the types of places I should be looking at to gain work experience? I'm not sure whether I should lean more towards looking at gaining work experience with the police or towards looking at gaining work experience in a medical setting, so I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I would like to mention that I have been diagnosed with high-functioning Autism, so I would prefer work experience at a relatively low-pressure and supportive environment, but if anyone can give me advice on how to tackle interviews or stressful work-related situations I would be indebted for that. Really, any help would be appreciated.

I think it may also be worthy to note that I will most likely be studying Psychology, History and Biology in sixth form, so if anyone does feel like I could open my options to other paths, those are some starting points.

Thank you for any help anyone is able to give me.

Reply 1

dragonkeeper999

17

Original post by GoatWithAGoatee

Hello, I'm a sixteen-year-old Year 11 student in London who really wants to pursue Forensic Biology in the future. However, I'm aware that it is a very competitive field and I would like to gain as much experience as possible as a head start.

I missed the opportunity to gain work experience in Year 10 as I was in the process of transitioning to a new school, hence I missed my opportunity to do so then, but does anybody have an idea of the types of places I should be looking at to gain work experience? I'm not sure whether I should lean more towards looking at gaining work experience with the police or towards looking at gaining work experience in a medical setting, so I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I would like to mention that I have been diagnosed with high-functioning Autism, so I would prefer work experience at a relatively low-pressure and supportive environment, but if anyone can give me advice on how to tackle interviews or stressful work-related situations I would be indebted for that. Really, any help would be appreciated.

I think it may also be worthy to note that I will most likely be studying Psychology, History and Biology in sixth form, so if anyone does feel like I could open my options to other paths, those are some starting points.

Thank you for any help anyone is able to give me.

If you're interested in forensics, I'd highly recommend Chemistry as an A level subject. In particular, analytical chemistry is a HUGE part of forensics and incredibly important.

Since it's quite a niche area, you may be best off looking for related work experience, for example in a genetics lab or in the police. When I was at sixth form, all of the short work experience placements I did were found through family friends - very few companies run organised placements for sixth form students unfortunately. Perhaps ask your friends if their parents have a relevent job, or ask your parents to ask their friends for some help. Another option is to write to local companies and universities to ask if you could visit them for a day or perhaps have a week-long work shadowing placement. Your school may even have links with local companies to help you with this :smile:

Reply 2

Maria xox

2

Original post by GoatWithAGoatee

Hello, I'm a sixteen-year-old Year 11 student in London who really wants to pursue Forensic Biology in the future. However, I'm aware that it is a very competitive field and I would like to gain as much experience as possible as a head start.

I missed the opportunity to gain work experience in Year 10 as I was in the process of transitioning to a new school, hence I missed my opportunity to do so then, but does anybody have an idea of the types of places I should be looking at to gain work experience? I'm not sure whether I should lean more towards looking at gaining work experience with the police or towards looking at gaining work experience in a medical setting, so I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I would like to mention that I have been diagnosed with high-functioning Autism, so I would prefer work experience at a relatively low-pressure and supportive environment, but if anyone can give me advice on how to tackle interviews or stressful work-related situations I would be indebted for that. Really, any help would be appreciated.

I think it may also be worthy to note that I will most likely be studying Psychology, History and Biology in sixth form, so if anyone does feel like I could open my options to other paths, those are some starting points.

Thank you for any help anyone is able to give me.

You need chemistry. I wouldnt take history, doesn't seem relevant to what you want as a career

Reply 3

National Careers Service

17

Original post by GoatWithAGoatee

Hello, I'm a sixteen-year-old Year 11 student in London who really wants to pursue Forensic Biology in the future. However, I'm aware that it is a very competitive field and I would like to gain as much experience as possible as a head start.

I missed the opportunity to gain work experience in Year 10 as I was in the process of transitioning to a new school, hence I missed my opportunity to do so then, but does anybody have an idea of the types of places I should be looking at to gain work experience? I'm not sure whether I should lean more towards looking at gaining work experience with the police or towards looking at gaining work experience in a medical setting, so I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I would like to mention that I have been diagnosed with high-functioning Autism, so I would prefer work experience at a relatively low-pressure and supportive environment, but if anyone can give me advice on how to tackle interviews or stressful work-related situations I would be indebted for that. Really, any help would be appreciated.

I think it may also be worthy to note that I will most likely be studying Psychology, History and Biology in sixth form, so if anyone does feel like I could open my options to other paths, those are some starting points.

Thank you for any help anyone is able to give me.

Hi there,

Thought I might be able to offer some support here.

The previous posts have offered you some good advice about considering chemistry for this career, it would be a very useful subject to have when applying for degrees.

Regarding work experience - it can be really difficult for anyone under the age of 18 (and in some places 21) to gain forensic based work experience so pleased try not to get disheartened if you find this is the case for you. This isn't anything to do with you as an individual it's more about having the right insurance insurance for a young worker, health and safety and confidentiality rules.

So if we look a little further outside the box for the mean-time you may want to consider looking for work experience which will help you build up other transferable skills that you will need for this career such as:

- strong research and analytical skills
- High levels of patience and concentration
- Attention to detail
- Strong communication skills

You could start by looking for local opportunities online...

https://volunteeringmatters.org.uk/

https://do-it.org/

If you know anyone through family or friends who works within the science industry certainly ask them if you would be able to do some work experience with them to help you gain insight into careers in science.

You may also find the following website helpful with your research on the career and work experience - http://aboutforensics.co.uk/careers-education/

I hope this helps!

Sophie @National Careers Service

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

Maria xox

2

Original post by National Careers Service

Hi there,

Thought I might be able to offer some support here.

The previous posts have offered you some good advice about considering chemistry for this career, it would be a very useful subject to have when applying for degrees.

Regarding work experience - it can be really difficult for anyone under the age of 18 (and in some places 21) to gain forensic based work experience so pleased try not to get disheartened if you find this is the case for you. This isn't anything to do with you as an individual it's more about having the right insurance insurance for a young worker, health and safety and confidentiality rules.

So if we look a little further outside the box for the mean-time you may want to consider looking for work experience which will help you build up other transferable skills that you will need for this career such as:

- strong research and analytical skills
- High levels of patience and concentration
- Attention to detail
- Strong communication skills

You could start by looking for local opportunities online...

https://volunteeringmatters.org.uk/

https://do-it.org/

If you know anyone through family or friends who works within the science industry certainly ask them if you would be able to do some work experience with them to help you gain insight into careers in science.

You may also find the following website helpful with your research on the career and work experience - http://aboutforensics.co.uk/careers-education/

I hope this helps!

Sophie @National Careers Service

Would you say hospital or school work is relevant to those skills? And if yes which one more?

Reply 5

National Careers Service

17

Original post by Maria xox

Would you say hospital or school work is relevant to those skills? And if yes which one more?

Hi,

Gaining work experience in either of these places would certainly allow you to build on the relevant skills – one thing to consider is that it may be easier to find a placement within a school than it would be to find one within a hospital environment. This is usually due to patient confidentiality and that a lot of university students work within the hospital as a part of their medical degrees.

It’s worth knowing that a lot of employers will like that you have work experience in any area (if you can relate it to the career goal you have in mind, that will certainly be a bonus) as it shows you know a little bit more about the working world outside of education!

I hope this helps!

Tom @ National Careers Service

Reply 6

powiful

12

Funeral directors, my friend did it for her work experience. It’s the only work experience closely enough related to the field that she could find.

Reply 7

Iron_Man3

2

Original post by username2831818

Hello, I'm a sixteen-year-old Year 11 student in London who really wants to pursue Forensic Biology in the future. However, I'm aware that it is a very competitive field and I would like to gain as much experience as possible as a head start.

I missed the opportunity to gain work experience in Year 10 as I was in the process of transitioning to a new school, hence I missed my opportunity to do so then, but does anybody have an idea of the types of places I should be looking at to gain work experience? I'm not sure whether I should lean more towards looking at gaining work experience with the police or towards looking at gaining work experience in a medical setting, so I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I would like to mention that I have been diagnosed with high-functioning Autism, so I would prefer work experience at a relatively low-pressure and supportive environment, but if anyone can give me advice on how to tackle interviews or stressful work-related situations I would be indebted for that. Really, any help would be appreciated.

I think it may also be worthy to note that I will most likely be studying Psychology, History and Biology in sixth form, so if anyone does feel like I could open my options to other paths, those are some starting points.

Thank you for any help anyone is able to give me.

Hi, I was wondering if you were eventually able to find work experience related to Forensic Biology, as I am currently studying psychology, biology and computing in sixth form, and it requires a weeks worth of work experience for UCAS applications. I've been diagnosed with Asperger's and also prefer working in low-pressure environments. Did you manage to find any places that offered this?

Work Experience For Forensics?

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