Work experience and volunteering
Work experience, placements, and volunteering are a great way to demonstrate your enthusiasm, knowledge, and passion for your chosen subject area in your personal statement.
Work experience, placements, and volunteering are a great way to demonstrate your enthusiasm, knowledge, and passion for your chosen subject area in your personal statement.
But, with the current restrictions on our lives, carrying this out in-person can be difficult.
Don’t worry, unis and colleges understand this and will take it into consideration, and there are lots of other ways you can gain useful experience.
It’s important to research your chosen profession to make sure it’s right for you, especially for vocational courses. In your personal statement you need to give evidence that you have a good understanding of what it would be like to study your chosen subject, and have a realistic idea of what a career in that area involves.
There are a number of ways you can carry out research:
While you’re at home, there are lots of online activities which will expand your knowledge and give you a broader understanding of a subject. Some examples which could help you include:
Don’t just list what you’ve done though. Think about and analyse your experience, and then link it into evidence in your personal statement:
These are all great ways of building up evidence of your interest in your chosen subject. Writing about your online experiences and reflecting on them in your personal statement will help demonstrate your passion and dedication for your chosen subject and course.
Also remember, you’ll already have a lot of the skills you would use in the workplace – try to think more broadly about these – for example, teamworking experience you’ve gained when completing a school or college project, or communication skills you’ve learnt and how you’ve used them. How are these relevant and useful to the courses you’re interested in?
If you have activities planned in the future, it’s fine to mention these in your personal statement and explain what you’re hoping to get out of it. But life is unpredictable at the moment. If it doesn’t happen, do something else to demonstrate your interest in your subject instead – for example, an online project. Show you’ve used you initiative to fill that time wisely.
Even though your plans to get work experience might have to change, try to think creatively. There are plenty of other options to research and gain more knowledge of your subject and course, and to give evidence of your commitment and enthusiasm.