Work Experience

What is work experience?

Work experience is an opportunity for direct experience of work within an organisational setting. Work experience includes some direct work for the organisation, alongside shadowing, which involves the observation of employees.

We are proud to support work experience for young people across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset, offering valuable insights into clinical and non-clinical roles and creating pathways into the workforce. Collaborating with system partners across BNSSG, work experience opportunities are managed through the careers hub, accessed via schools and their careers advisors. Programmes include structured experiences for under-18s, T-Level placements in industry-specific roles, and charity initiatives like Women’s Work Lab, which supports individuals transitioning back into the workplace through tailored coaching and hands-on placements.

Our work experience scheme has been recognised with the Gold Award for Work Experience Quality Standard from NHS England, showing our ongoing commitment to providing outstanding learning opportunities and fostering an inclusive, supportive environment. The award reflects our continued focus on helping people of all backgrounds explore careers in community healthcare through high-quality, hands-on placements across a wide range of roles.

Potential Placement Opportunities

• Clinical Roles – including Nursing Teams, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, and more.
• Non-Clinical Roles – such as Finance, I.T, Administration, Project Management and others.

What will the placement involve?

These opportunities consist of virtual preparation and reflection sessions, face-to-face placement days, and structured support from Sirona’s workforce teams. This initiative provides young people with a unique opportunity to experience working in healthcare, gaining exposure to both clinical and non-clinical environments, and helping them develop the skills needed for a rewarding career in the sector.

Your placement will help you to get some practical experience of work and find out what it is really like. The type of work you’ll be expected to do will vary but will include assisting on day-to-day tasks and duties alongside observation. This will vary from clinical to non-clinical placements. A clinical placement is not to learn about medicine but to learn about what the members of the healthcare team do and not to carry out clinical tasks such as taking blood pressure.

You will get to meet a range of people in the team that take part in running of the organisation.

There may be some areas of work that you cannot get involved in. This may be due to sensitivity of the work, or the need for specialist expertise.

Is it worth doing a work experience in healthcare?

The NHS and other healthcare organisations provide around 15,000 placements annually, helping students gain practical skills and experience in the healthcare sector.

Healthcare work experience can significantly enhance a student’s C.V, boosting their chances of securing further training, apprenticeships, or university placements. For example, students who participate in work experience programmes are more likely to develop the soft skills necessary to succeed in future employment, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving.

What do you want to gain from the work experience?

By participating, learners gain critical skills and real-world experience, building the pipeline for Sirona’s future workforce. For young people, this is an excellent opportunity to explore healthcare careers, understand the variety of roles within Sirona, and receive hands-on experience that can open doors to future employment.

Think about what you want to gain, depending on a clinical or non-clinical role, work experience can give you the benefits of:-

• New skills and experience
• Understanding the realities of working in a community healthcare organisation and if clinical working in a caring profession
• Contacts within Sirona, which might help for future jobs
• Have a people-focused experience of providing a service, care or help to others
• Have the values, attitudes and behaviours essential to be a healthcare professional such a conscientiousness, good communication skills, and the ability to interact with a wide variety of people.

Before the placement

Is it worth doing some research and thinking about some questions I would like to ask?

Absolutely!

Think about the roles you are going to see where you are working.

• Research the roles you might expect to see when you go on placement.
• Do you have any questions about these roles for when you are on placement? For example, what qualifications do you need, or what their working day looks like?
• Look at the Health Careers website and explore the roles and real life stories.

There are over 350 roles in the Health Service, in clinical roles, office-based jobs or services. For more information on different roles in the Health Service click below to visit the Health Careers website.

Applications

School Leavers Options

Have you considered an Apprenticeship?

If you have an ideal job in mind following your work experience, when you finish high school or passionate about working in a particular career area, an Apprentice is a great way to start.

Apprentices are for colleagues of any age and there are several of them on offer covering a number of different functional areas. Click below to find out more.

Hear from our work experience students

Find out more

For more information contact sirona.studentcoordinationcentre@nhs.net