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psychology work experience

Hi! I'm looking for work experience in psychology, im mostly interesred in criminal psychology but any type would be great! im currently in year 10 and i need to find a placement by March 14th. i dont have a CV currently so im worried that it may affect any chances as im sure psychology is a hard field to get work experience in at 15 years old. what types of places could i email to ask if they would do work experience?

Reply 1

YSJstudents

Official Rep

Hi there! A you've said, it can be quite hard to get experience in psychology, especially criminal psychology, but you'd be surprised what you can make relevant to it! A few places I'd recommend looking are;

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Charities (are there any hotline centres or projects near you?)

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Care Homes (caring for the elderly can be really beneficial for psychology, especially those with Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, etc. as this is something you'd study a lot at university)

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The police - this may be a long shot but worth reaching out and asking, the worst they can say is no.

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Schools - not necessarily directly relevant to criminal psychology, but experience working with children is a requirement for a lot of psychology jobs generally, maybe ask to shadow your school's SENCO?

Hope this helps! I'm a third-year psychology student at York St. John so happy to help with any other questions about studying psych too🤗
-Kiera (Student Ambassador)

Reply 2

IdiotIcarus

Original post by namjoonbiggetfan

Hi! I'm in my second year of A-levels right now, going into psychology undergraduate in September. Work experience this young will definitely be tricky since most places won't hire under 16. For now, look into volunteer work, or asking to shadow in a classroom environment, or even just reading to younger children in a school, all of that counts if you can word it to sound 'psychological'. Once you're older, care homes are easy enough to get hired into and count as psychology work experience, the work is tough and hours can be long but I put it into my Personal Statement and have been accepted to all of my universities, i even got an unconditional offer.

So for now, look around for volunteer work, volunteering with children is going to look great, and also any sort of customer service experience actually counts to some degree since you're dealing with people in a professional setting. Oh, and don't worry about the CV, there's plenty of templates and guides online for how to make a CV for the first time without experience. I hope this helps!