1 Finding advertised vacancies
There are many online sources of internship and other work experience vacancies, including the following:
TARGETJobs [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] – a good website source of vacancies aimed at higher education students. Searchable by degree subject, opportunity type, career sector, salary, region, degree requirements and whether organisations accept applications from those requiring work permits. It includes internships, work placements and summer jobs.
Milkround – another popular student and graduate job website with an internships vacancy database. Searchable by job type/sector/skill and town/city/region.
Prospects – an extensive graduate careers advice website with a jobs database. In ‘Type of work’, choose ‘work experience’ to see a range of opportunities. If you want to narrow your search further, you could type ‘Internship’ into the ‘Keyword’ box.
Ratemyplacement – this site has a focus on student internships and placements. It also collects student reviews on a wide range of employing organisations, which can provide useful insight.
Student Job – this site includes vacancies for those who are not at university. It has a focus on part-time and temporary roles and also includes work from home jobs.
If you have specific ideas about the employers you’d like to work with, check out their websites as they may advertise vacancies directly.
Activity 1 Finding work experience vacancies
Spend a few minutes looking at one or more of the vacancy websites listed. Get a feel for the types of vacancies advertised and whether they are likely to suit your needs. If you already have an idea of what you want to do, is the search facility capable of narrowing it down enough for you?
Make some notes about your findings in the box below.
Discussion
You may find that the employers who use these sites don’t represent the sector or type of organisation you want to work with. If that is the case, there are other ways to more proactively find the experience you’re searching for, which you will look at in the next section.
If you are currently in higher education, your institution’s careers service will often have their own vacancy database that you can access. They may also have a dedicated team who match students with vacancies in the local area or with other opportunities that are specifically targeted at students from your institution.
If you don’t have access to an institutional careers service, there are other ways to find opportunities and the next section will introduce you to them.