Work Experience FAQ

The following information is designed to answer the most commonly asked questions about work experience and internship programmes:

1. What are work experience and internship programmes?
2. What vocational sectors are available?
3. What payment can I expect for working in the company?
4. What will I gain from doing a work experience or internship programme?
5. What sort of work will I do in the company?
6. What sort of placement can I expect?
7. What will my hours of work be?
8. Diability?

What are work experience and internship programmes?

Work experience and internship programmes are essentially the same. They provide applicants and other participants the opportunity to work in a company for between four weeks and six months, applying the knowledge and experience they have already gained from their studies and other previous work, get new ideas and enhance this through on-the-job training and learning.

What vocational sectors are available?

It does not matter what you are studying, you can benefit from undertaking a work experience / internship programme!

Tellus is able to find work placements for most general sectors (such as marketing, finance, administration, management etc) within six weeks. More specialist sectors (such as law, teaching, medicine and sciences such as geology, chemistry and physics) may take a little longer (up to 12 weeks). Contact us about your needs.

What payment can I expect for working in the company?

Work experience and internship placements are not paid positions! Because they are designed to compliment your studies and enhance your CV, they are considered as vocational training positions. The company that employs you will help you develop your knowledge, skills and experience, which in itself is quite rewarding with regard to your CV and future career.

What will I gain from doing a work experience or internship programme?

Work experience is becoming increasingly vital in applicants' personal and career development. It enables you to demonstrate:

1. * That you can transfer your academic learning into the workplace
2. * You have the skills and qualities that employers are looking for

The benefits of work experience for you include the following:

1. * Opportunity to put the theory you have learnt into practice
2. * Opportunity to learn about and compare workplace cultures
3. * Opportunity to develop the skills and qualities that employers are looking for
4. * Support with career choice, strategies and contacts in the rapidly changing working world
5. * Improved prospects of both employment and higher earnings
6. * Living and working in another culture

What sort of work will I do in the company?

The kind of work you will do will be very much dependant on your own interests, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm.
Typically, participants start with basic tasks supporting people already employed in the company, and, as their experience and confidence grows, their work placement supervisors will increase the complexity of the tasks and their level of responsibility.

What sort of placement can I expect?

Tellus will find you a work placement based on the information you give us. Therefore, when considering the type of placement you would like to undertake, you should contemplate your own knowledge and skills and define your work placement requirements that best matches these. To give you an example, if you are studying accounting at university, there is no point in you asking for a work placement in website design (believe us, some people do!).

What will my hours of work be?

When working within a British company, you will be expected to work the same hours as the other employees in the company.
In the UK, people typically work a 40-hour week, which includes breaks. Hours of work are generally between 0900 and 1700, Monday to Friday. However, it is important that you recognise that if the company is open on Saturdays or Sundays, you may be expected to work then, too, and have your days off during the week.

Disability?

We accept persons with a disability. However, we are not able to accept persons requiring wheelchair access or unable to walk up and down stairs. This is because we do not have a building suitable for wheelchairs and the building has three floors with no escalators.

Persons unable to attend our building could be taught in alternative premises that are accessible such as a hotel. Please consult us.

Any more questions?

If we have not been able to answer all of your questions, you can use one or more of the following ways to ask us something else and we will do our best to come back to you with answers as soon as possible.