Youth Employment Week
Day 2 - Life and work experience
To build your life and work experience, there are two main ways you can learn new things, build your confidence and show your passion. These are volunteering and real life work experience. See how to build your experience into your CV, and how to find great opportunities that interest YOU!
Volunteering and work experience are GREAT for your CV!
They help you show employers what you can do if they give you a chance...
Volunteering
Volunteering is a fantastic way to build your skills and experience. While helping others in your community, you can also help yourself by boosting your CV by doing something that you enjoy and that makes a difference. There are lots of volunteering opportunities, from working with children or animals to supporting a local hospital or volunteering with national and international charities.
Work experience
Work experience is your chance to get a taste of the world of work and to answer any questions you might have. Whether you spend a day, a week or even a month with an employer, you’ll gain valuable skills and insight that you can apply to any job. You’ll also learn about what you do and don’t like about different work environments, and it will help you explore what you want from your future career.
3 ways to explore experience TODAY
Free online courseSign up for Young Professional free training (it only takes a minute) and try the free online course module Your Life and Work Experience. Explore your options, see how to find volunteering and work experience, and how to show off that experience in your CV.
Find opportunitiesIf you have limited life and work experience and want to find something that interests you, look for opportunities near you with Create Your Future and pick 3 that interest you the most. What do you like about them? How could they be useful? You can even take the next step and apply if it’s right for you!
Update your CVIf you already have some experience, you can talk about volunteering and work experience in your CV. Talk about what you did, what you learned, and link it to your skills!
Ask yourself:
- What skills do I want to build through work experience?
- What might I like to do in the future?
- How could I find an opportunity that combines these?
- What questions would I like to ask during my work experience?
If you're aged 14 – 22 with an interest in marketing and the inclusive sport of horseracing, you can join the Youth Collaboration Group with Careers in Racing. Build skills and confidence as you do everything from co-designing hoodies and videos to understanding what goes on in a racing yard!
Let’s make a SMART goal for experience…
Making a SMART goal is a good way to achieve your goals, no matter how big or small. You can break down your journey to success into small steps that fit your needs.
A SMART goal is:
- Specific: What do you want to achieve?
- Measurable: How will you know when you’ve achieved it?
- Achievable: How can your goal be accomplished?
- Relevant: Why is this goal worth the effort?
- Timely: When do you aim to accomplish this goal?
Example of a SMART goal
“I will look for opportunities near me for 30 minutes each week and apply for an opportunity that interests me if I feel ready so that I can gain some work experience for my CV.”
Try this at home
Use the Get Job Ready SMART goals worksheet from McDonald’s to create some SMART goals that will help you step closer and closer to what matters to YOU.
Get worksheetCareer confidence tip for today
Keep track of your achievements – you can start from today! They’ll look great on your CV. Also, looking back at your successes will make you more feel more confident in your ability.
Top tip: Tracking your achievements is a great confidence booster when you’re not feeling your best, or things don’t go as you expected or hoped for. Your achievements can remind you of how far you’ve already come!
Overcoming barriers
If you’re struggling to find opportunities that interest you in your local area, you can widen your search with virtual opportunities. Many employers offer the opportunity to gain some work experience online, and even careers that you can do remotely!
You can search for virtual opportunities including work experience AND volunteering that you can do from home online. There are also lots of free virtual work experience courses to help you explore what’s out there, what you can expect to happen, and how to find opportunities that meet your wants and needs.
You can even explore the world of work with Youth Friendly Employers like Surrey County Council, Haven, McDonald’s, and Buckinghamshire Council!
Building experience locally
You can find opportunities to build your skills locally through volunteering, work experience, and training courses with #CreateYourFuture. It’s like a jobs board for young people!
Sign in to search for development opportunities in your local area.
Aged 16-30? Volunteer with Youth Employment UK and you’ll gain so much more than something great to put on your CV. (You’ll get that too.) Wherever you live, we’ll help you get involved in inspiring projects around the UK or online.
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