Work experience
Gaining relevant work experience is vital to support your job search – without it you’re less likely to be successful at interview.
Our aim is to support local people to gain the best advantage they can with valuable work experience and we offer short term (usually one to two weeks) unpaid placements that can help you. We may also be able to help you with job shadowing, taster days and part time placements lasting up to three months.
Currently we do not have any general placements available for adults, although this may change during the next few months. Please do keep a regular check on this page as different teams may have differing availability.
Due to high demand, applications for 2024 have now closed. There may however be a very limited number of placements for year 10 students. If you are in year 10 of a Southampton school and interested in work experience, please contact your careers or work experience advisor for further information and to support your application.
What will I gain from a placement?
Undertaking career tasters, work experience placements or voluntary work of any kind can help you on your career journey in lots of ways:
- Gaining confidence in the workplace
- Learning new skills or brushing up on existing ones
- Meeting new people and developing your contacts
- Improving your CV – you can use your work experience to show how you fit in a team or deliver good customer service for example
- Gaining a reference
- Sharing your skills
Who can apply for a placement?
Anyone. Whether you're at school, college or university, or are unemployed, we welcome work experience applications from the local community.
Where could I go in the council?
Currently, we do not have any placements available, although this may change during the next few months
In the future we hope to have placements in a variety of services across the council including:
- Nursery assistants and Childcare
- Administration
- Museums
- Civil engineering, Architecture and Property services
- Democratic services, Electoral register
- Finance
- Human resources
- Communications
- Libraries
What will be expected from me?
Whilst you’re with us on your placement you’ll be working alongside experienced staff who are carrying out their job, so you’ll be expected to make a contribution to that work. We want to make our placements as beneficial as possible for you so you’ll be working on real projects and undertaking real tasks. We will also expect you to:
- Follow all the council rules and procedures that will be given in your induction on day one, paying particular attention to all aspects of health and safety
- Accept responsibility for your learning and ask for help if you are unsure about anything relating to your placement or tasks you are being given
- Follow reasonable instruction from your supervisor or buddy
- Attend work at the agreed times for the duration of your placement
- Above all be motivated to achieve – after all this is your opportunity to show us what you can do!
How do I apply for a placement?
We have now closed our applications for both work experience placements for year 10 students and the wider community. This however is subject to change so please keep a regular check on this page. We are taking a consistent approach to ensure a fair and equal process is applied when considering work experience applications.
The application will ask for some basic personal information so we can get in touch with you, along with preferred dates of the placement and the service area you would like to work in. The form also asks for details on why you are applying for this placement and how it will help with your job search.
Please note that due to demand we can only consider work experience requests from Southampton City residents (i.e. SO14-SO19 postcodes).
Please note if you are requesting a placement within the Children’s Service (i.e. Nursery and Sure Start experience), please apply at least six weeks before the actual date of the placement you are looking for. This is requested in order to ensure any appropriate DBS checks are undertaken to work with children before a placement is taken up.
Due to high demand, applications for 2024 have now closed.
