Work experience
Work experience enables individuals to gain a taste into the day-to-day workings of our health services. Experiences are purely observational, so no direct patient-care is possible, and may include career workshops and talks provided by staff, or scheduled programmes providing opportunity to shadow staff. Such placements can:
- enable individuals to identify the careers that are most suitable for them
- learn more about the reality of working in healthcare and in specific professions
- change and develop an individual’s career aspirations
How to submit a work experience enquiry
Enquiries can be submitted via a form on this webpage in the months below:
- September for work experience in December to March
- December for work experience in April to July
- April for work experience in August to November
At the end of the month, all enquiries will be reviewed and where possible, matched to relevant opportunities. Please provide us with a full description of your interests and career aspirations and indicate all dates and locations that would be suitable. This information will help us to process your enquiry as quickly as possible.
If you are unsure about the types of roles that might interest you, it can be helpful to do some research before submitting a work experience enquiry. The Health Careers website is a good place to start. It has detailed information about the wide range of careers in the NHS and a ‘let’s find your health career’ quiz.
If the enquiry form is not available at the end of this page, then we are not currently open to new work experience enquires. For any questions, please contact us at Work.Experience@SomersetFT.nhs.uk.
Industry placements
Enquiries for industry placements should be made via your Sixth Form or College placement team in the first instance. These are placements that are:
- designed for vocational course students, for example, T-Levels, BTECs
- completed after GCSEs
- may be instead of, or equivalent to A-Levels
- combine classroom learning with work placement (80:20)
Please complete the form below to enquire about a work experience placement at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust between April 2025 and March 2025.