Opportunities for first year students

Spring weeks and insight days for 1st year students

Getting work experience will help you explore different career areas and jobs so that you can make informed choices and will help you develop skills for future roles. All great material for your CV.

Opportunities for 1st year students are often called spring weeks or insight days, they may last a week or more or just be a day. You may work on a project or shadow a staff member or be given a tour of the office or site depending on the length of the opportunity. They may occur in any vacation period or if it's just a day it may be during term time.

They are often advertised from Autumn onwards, some opportunities will have early closing dates, others may not be advertised until later in the year. Often it is dependent on what time of year the opportunity will take place, if it's at Christmas or Easter it will have to be organised earlier than summer. That said large organisations do tend to organise work experience early in the year!

  • CareerConnect Look for short placement internship or insight days and spring weeks. (Also check summer internships, some may take any year group)

Internship sites

You will find opportunities listed on many graduate or student job sites, these will often be with larger employers.

Are there any other opportunities?

Yes there are! Work experience doesn't have to be called an internship or spring week to be valuable. Think about skills you would like to develop, or jobs you are curious about, and use your vacation periods to get some experience. Consider: