Types of work experience

Gaining work experience can offer you more than an entry on your CV or LinkedIn profile. It equips you with new skills and abilities developed by putting your knowledge and curiosity into practice, it helps you meet new people and make meaningful connections, and it teaches you a lot about yourself, including what you like or don’t like doing, how you work best, and what helps you thrive.

Work experience can often offer you a salary or be unpaid, and we strongly recommend opting for a paid role if possible.

Important! Please note that work experience opportunities do NOT require you to make payment to an employer. If you encounter companies that request payment in return for a work experience opportunity, please cease communication with them and flag this to us in the Careers & Employability Service for further support.

Placements

Placements are periods of work experience that are integrated within the curriculum. At Sheffield, this could range from a short-term placement within a module to the addition of a placement year. 

A placement can help you:

• gain valuable work experience for your CV;
• discover what you do and don’t like doing;
• develop a range of transferable skills;
• get an insight into possible careers;
• build a professional network;
• apply elements of academic learning in the workplace.

Short-term placements provide an opportunity for you to undertake a placement (less than a year) as part of a degree programme. These are already embedded, often as part of a particular module and are usually assessed. Many courses in the Faculty of Health will incorporate these types of placements.

If you would like to know if your course offers these types of opportunities, please contact your school.
 

Placement year

You have the flexibility to add a placement year to any course that doesn't already include significant work experience.

Placement years are subject to the same progression regulations as any other year in your programme. You will need to have passed the previous year for your placement to be recognised as part of your degree qualification.

Further information broken down into the different stages of the placement year process can be found in our placement year hub (students only).

Internships

Internships are extracurricular work opportunities that can be completed alongside your study programme. They usually run in the summer months but are advertised throughout the year.

An internship can help you:

• try out a role for a short period of time to see if it is for you;
• develop your professional network by meeting new people;
• gain experience and insights into the industry;
• grow more confident in your abilities;
• develop transferable skills that can be applied to other areas of work.

Internships could be completed in person at the organisation, delivered in a hybrid format where you work from home some of the time, or completed remotely. We would expect the format to be stated clearly within an advert, but it is something you could ask the recruiter about ahead of applying. 

Hybrid and remote internships can offer many of the benefits of an in-person opportunity, but there are some differences to consider:

• introductions to the organisation and to colleagues could be completed through webinars, virtual meetings and online training;
• you might never meet your co-workers in person and will need to work harder to keep in touch with colleagues and ask for help when it is needed;
• it can take longer to get decisions made or receive a response to emails as colleagues may be working in different time zones, have busy schedules or be working flexible hours;
• you can often be given more responsibility and ownership of your work, enabling you to demonstrate your capabilities.
• remote internships can offer global opportunities and enable you to gain experience in locations or areas that may be inaccessible to you in person.

Further information broken down into the different stages of the internship process can be found on our internships webpage (students only).

Part-time work

Part-time work may be undertaken during term time and allows you to gain experience alongside your studies. 

Part-time work is a great way to:

• boost your finances whilst studying;
• gain valuable work experience that you can talk about in future recruitment processes;
• develop your skillset in the workplace;
• meet and work with new people.

Both students and graduates can use Career Connect to search for vacancies. Further information on part-time work alongside your studies can be found on our part-time work webpage (students only).

Virtual work experience programmes

Virtual work experience programmes are flexible programmes that have been developed by top graduate employers to mirror real-life work within their organisation.

A virtual work experience programme differs from a virtual internship or remote working, as you are not employed by the organisation and can complete the programmes in your own time and at your own pace.

Virtual work experience programmes are a great way to:

• get work experience completely remotely, from anywhere you have internet access;
• gain a real understanding of different roles and sectors;
• discover career paths that you may not have previously considered;
• feel assured that you can try new things out without commitment;
• begin to discover what sorts of tasks you enjoy to focus on future work experience searches.

We would always advise you to be wary of any organisations that ask you to pay a substantial fee to participate in virtual work experience. We are partnered with multiple providers that are free of charge for you to complete as a University of Sheffield student or graduate. 

Further information on our partners can be found on our virtual work experience programmes webpage.

Volunteering

Volunteering and voluntary work is unpaid and is likely to be for a charity, voluntary organisation, or statutory body.

Volunteering is a great way to:

• gain work experience, particularly if you haven’t worked before or need experience in a specific sector where there’s little paid work available;
• gain an insight into roles and sectors in a way that fits around your other commitments, as you can volunteer for a day, a week, or longer depending on your preference;
• develop a wide range of transferable skills that you can talk about in future recruitment processes;
• connect and contribute to the wider community.

Further information about where you might look for volunteering opportunities can be found on our volunteering webpage.