Is one form of experience more valuable than another? Martin Pennington and Richard Mendez from the Career Service at the University of Leicester answer some of your questions about work experience. Should I be thinking about work experience in my first year?It is never too early to start thinking about your options. Although major companies usually target penultimate year students for their work placement programmes, you can use your time at university to get a range of experiences that will stand you in good stead when you graduate. Think about getting some voluntary experience through your Students’ Union as a starting point or maybe a part-time job during your vacations. Remember that your top priority in your final year will be your final exams or coursework, so you don’t have all that long to make yourself marketable. Why should I waste a summer holiday doing work experience? I’ll never have this much freedom again!It’s possible to combine a period of work experience and time out over the summer holiday period. If you manage your time effectively you can only benefit from gaining a wide range of experience. There are many summer placement schemes of varying lengths and across a diverse range of sectors. Considering the value added to your CV or application form by completing a summer placement, it is certainly an activity that you should contemplate doing. Do employers really want work experience? Isn’t a degree enough?So many people have degrees these days that you will need to stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs. Employers increasingly want new recruits to be able to add value straightaway. If you can demonstrate that you have already achieved a certain level of competence, you will be far more likely to get the job you want. Furthermore, in some cases, students have even been offered jobs in the same company where they completed their work experience. Is one form of work experience more valuable than another?You can learn a lot in any working environment. Structured, project-based work experience gives you a range of opportunities to develop ‘employability’ skills but you can also start to develop these skills through part-time or voluntary work. The important thing is to be able to articulate your achievements to potential employers so that they know what you are capable of doing. Can I do work experience tied in with my postgraduate study?Most employers value related work experience as it shows that you have a real interest in the career area, you understand the job to some extent, and you have an idea of how to identify and develop the skills that are needed to do the job well. So even if you are doing postgraduate study, it’s always worth keeping an eye on your work experience. Some courses will have this built in to them. If you are doing a Masters in management and you are thinking of perhaps working in marketing, then you might want to see if you can base one of your projects or dissertation within a company, perhaps working on a marketing project for a local firm. That way you can put the experience down on your CV, and the company will value getting high-level work for free. Investigate schemes such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and Shell STEP that work with universities and local businesses to develop projects. Additionally, organisations such as Year in Industry are a good source of work experience opportunities. Major company schemes usually target penultimate year students, but sometimes will look at postgraduate students as well. Many people arrange their own placements through contacts, speculative applications and recruitment agencies. If you are looking for work directly related to your degree, try asking your department for contacts. Do employers have an age limit for work experience placements?The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 prevent employers from selecting for work placements on the basis of age although you may sometimes see language and images on websites or in publicity material that implies that organisations exclusively recruit younger applicants. This may not be deliberate or even accurate - but it can influence whether you apply to them or not. Take a good look at what the position on offer entails particularly the skills and attributes being sought. Identify examples from your own experiences; work, education or social. All are acceptable as long as you can demonstrate that you have just what the employer wants. You should never undersell your experiences. Often mature students will say, ‘I have a lot of experience but it’s not relevant to the placement I’m considering now.’ Far from being a drawback, it is the range and diversity of your experiences that make you such a potential asset to employers. Finally, be positive about yourself. Employers will be receptive to enthusiasm, self-confidence and commitment. You have shown drive, determination, time management and organisational skills to achieve what you have. There is helpful guidance on age discrimination and how to deal with it at handling discrimination. | 
