impossible to find year 12 work experience

A few points:
You might want to see if there are any programmes running near you that could give relevant experience or you could broaden your search to healthcare as a whole
Your wex does not need to be relevant to your degree, if it isnt you can still discuss skills from it in your ps. You can do work experience any time, not just when your school says so maybe ask the pharmacy that responded to you if they could fit you in another time (if you showed your school this effort and how youve lined up a placement at another time then maybe you could do a virtual work experience programme during the week dedicated to work experience at your school)
Its slightly concerning that you are set on pharmacy but feel you have not got much to talk about on a ps, maybe try to do some wider reading so you can discuss that

Could you try contacting local hospitals? Sometimes they have work experience programs? You might be able to get half day in the pharmacy department as part of that and can be inquisitive about medicines in the other departments? Make sure you get work experience at the pharmacy your relative works at another time. If you are really stuck for work experience maybe there’s a nursing home? Again they will have nurses there and you can try to chat to them about medications like maybe what’s the most common medications people in the home take? It’s not a pharmacy but you can explain how hard it’s been to find a placement in your statement for your work experience week and how you thought outside the box?

I know I can do work experience at any time, but I still need to find a placement for the week given from my school specifically or else I’ll be doing nothing useful throughout that whole week.
Also when I said I didn’t have much to write on the personal statement, I meant in terms of work experience. I already do/have done other extracurriculars such as being a school prefect, volunteering work for younger years, leading a club, book reading and I also plan on signing up for volunteering in my local library some point soon.
I was think of expanding my search to dentists but I fear it’s already too late to be asking.

As i said before, you could do something else worthwhile during that week. The activities youve listed for your ps arent relevant to pharmacy at all (with the possible exceptions of the club and reading as you have not said if they are pharmacy related). Universities will have very little interest in whether you have spent time as a prefect or volunteered at a library- these things will only make up a couple of sentences in question 3 of your ps where you will focus on skills gained. Unis are looking for genuine interest in the subject you are applying for: online courses, webinars, documentaries, articles, books, relevant volunteering or wex, relevant trips etc

You just said that the work experience that i do does not need to be related to the degree and now your saying that both my extracurriculars and wex need to be somewhat related??? It’s not my fault that all these places keep on rejecting me so I have to settle on things in that are already accessible to me…

As i said before, you could do something else worthwhile during that week. The activities youve listed for your ps arent relevant to pharmacy at all (with the possible exceptions of the club and reading as you have not said if they are pharmacy related). Universities will have very little interest in whether you have spent time as a prefect or volunteered at a library- these things will only make up a couple of sentences in question 3 of your ps where you will focus on skills gained. Unis are looking for genuine interest in the subject you are applying for: online courses, webinars, documentaries, articles, books, relevant volunteering or wex, relevant trips etc

I already tried hospitals. My mum works in hospital but the pharmacy department does not take students and she’s heard that they usually make you get vaccines if you want to do anything medical related…I did research and found work experience programmes in other hospitals however they were already oversubscribed and they only accept students who live or go to school in specific london boroughs. I got a response from an nhs dentistry placement however the weeks they were offering were neither during my school work experience week or during a half term.

I feel like you are being a bit dismissive. Non related extracurricular activities will look good on ops CV and they can be creative about linking them to pharmacy. I think what you are saying is going to add to ops stress at this time when they are already trying their best and stressed and I don’t think it’s that helpful to them right now to highlight that the efforts they have made so far (extracurricular) aren’t important.

What about my suggestion of the nursing home? I’m sure you can find one that would be grateful for your volunteering for the week? I know many elderly people will be on a lot of medications and you can learn about the interactions and risks and also perhaps think about the ways pharmacists can help older people organise they medications, pharmacists have packs that are made up or morning, afternoon, evening meds etc. I can’t remember the name of them. That a week or a few days there and the week at your relatives work surely would look pretty good?

I deleted this app 6 months ago bc my posts never got any responses/traction but oh well I need someone to see this.
I’m a year 12 and back in September my school made it clear to us that we need ourselves a work experience placement by March, ready for us to do near the end of year 12. I can’t say exactly when for privacy reasons.
Anyways, I already knew it was going to be quite hard for me to find a placement as I’ve had no luck in gaining any professional part time job beforehand, plus my previous school never did “year 10 work experience” so this is my first time mass-searching places for work.
For reference I’m thinking of studying pharmacy at uni so automatically i was recommended to ask local pharmacy’s as it will be “easy”. In October, I began emailing and calling local pharmacies although I either got no luck or just never got a response back. I kinda refrained from going in person as when I was job searching during gcse summer that gave me nothing. Time skip to now and I’ve been non stop calling places and It’s always “no” or “call our head office”, just for it to lead to absolutely nowhere. A few weeks ago I was extremely lucky to find out that one of my relatives works in a pharmacy so I was hoping that finally just before the half term I could get a placement. He promised my parents that he would speak to the pharmacy and get me placement week after week, I even had to write an additional email of a personal statement to the pharmacy. They didn’t respond until 2 weeks later, which is this evening, talking about how “unfortunately they already have another student that is doing a placement on the same week” and they only do one person per week.
Not trying to be dramatic but I actually give up , the deadline is next week and my school refuses to give us placements. I even went to the careers office a few weeks ago with my friend and all she told me was to go in person, WHICH I DID and then managed to help my friend get a placement in an orthodontists.
I just feel like I’m getting no luck in getting a career, yesterday I got rejected after doing my first ever interview, it wasn’t even a real interview it was online.
My parents are trying to convince to do “work experience” at my primary school or the library but they just don’t understand that the work experience I do has to be related to my field of study and I’m not going to have as much to talk about in my personal statement. Places like a primary school and libraries only offer volunteering work, not professional jobs. I don’t mind doing volunteering work but not as a substitute for my work experience
I just lowkey give up

Tbh I’ve been avoiding nursing and care homes since I lowkey just don’t know how to interact with elderly people but I’ll try do some research

Hey guys thanks for the response, I’ve just wanted to post an update for this post after a week. I now luckily have two placements in two different pharmacies, one in May and one for my school’s work experience week!