STEM/Medicine Internship/Work Experience for 'Well Off Student'

[Asvan]

Hi all

I have a daughter in year 12. She is studying A Levels in sciences and would like a career in STEM or Dentistry. She is not sure between the two and would like to do an internship/work experience to help her decide.

We've had a look online and there are summer internships available in these fields but a lot of them have a strict eligibility criteria. Only those that have not had a parent go to university/get free school meals/have a low income etc are eligible to apply for most.

Me and my husband are not well off but both earn 40k, we have both been to university and have never claimed benefits etc. Therefore, our daughter cannot apply for any such schemes.

Does anyone know of any internships/work experience opportunities available for someone like my daughter? Me and my husband have careers in completely different fields and we don't know anyone in these fields, which is making things difficult.

I did ask DD to speak to her careers service but they didn't really offer her much help. Dd is a high achiever and is predicted top grades.

I would appreciate any help or advice. We are based near Leeds in West Yorkshire.

Thanks.

Could she phone round local dentists? Someone I know who became a dentist got a part time job at a dentist. Or she could ask for work experience

Asking around friends parents.
Asking around your friends.

I’m not a Dentist but in healthcare. We get asked for work experience all the time.

We have called a few dentists but most of them have said they don't have a place or that they don't take students for insurance reasons.

When you say STEM can you be more specific? What subject alternatives to dentistry is she considering?

She really enjoys Chemistry, Biology and has also taken up Geography so wouldn't mind working in a field where she can use a mixture of these subjects, she just has no idea what direction to go in. She does love research/experimenting and is very academic so something research based may also suit her.

Unfortunately me and my husband work in completely different sectors so we've not been able to offer her much help or advice.

DS2 toyed with dentistry for a while. He did ten days work experience (I got friendly with our dentist with this in mind the year before!) which was enough to make him change his mind! Too peopley for him.
He’s now studying for a Masters Degree in Chemistry. Was unable to get a summer internship as so massively competitive but luckily just secured a years R&D internship for his fourth year.
Try the local hospital dental department if local dentists are a no. Most hospitals also take students for work experience in their laboratories, check their website for when and how to apply. Would the local university offer anything similar in their labs? Most of DS applications for his internships were found online, just Google STEM or Geography summer internships. He used Bright Network, Indeed, Gradcracker, Prosple, etc. You need to be looking and applying now it’s a laborious and soul destroying process tbh. Be warned, DS2 is also a high achiever and only secured one interview for which they interviewed 21 people out of over 400 applicants and took on 4. DH and I are also in different fields so no contacts which is how I suspect many students succeed.
DS1 studied Geography at Uni with no work experience whatsoever.

Is it necessary? Most young people cannot get anything in y12 or 13. What do uni courses expect? Maybe find someone needing extensive treatment and go in with them?

Networking does tend to be the way, is there anyone at all you know who works in science or healthcare? Failing that, suggest she googles the name of your town / area with words like science, research, laboratory, testing, see what comes up, there are plenty of smaller firms out there who might be open to a personal approach, and as they are B2B you often won't know they are there.

Investin are a company that offer work experience if you can pay.

https://investin.org/?nbt=nb%3Aadwords%3Ag%3A11806809356%3A118375930481%3A485082705774&nb_adtype=&nb_kwd=investin&nb_ti=kwd-334856479345&nb_mi=&nb_pc=&nb_pi=&nb_ppi=&nb_placement=&nb_li_ms=&nb_lp_ms=&nb_fii=&nb_ap=&nb_mt=e&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=11806809356&gbraid=0AAAAABxWps1onMSiWza94tHKKpS8nXFLy&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6q7GrLqzkQMV0ZxQBh1xdA-fEAAYASAAEgLJKvD_BwE

For dentistry, your local hospital will have an oral surgery or orthodontic department. There is usually a work experience team that you can contact and see if you can get a place. I do think it's important, like a pp said the reality might be totally different to what she thinks the job is!

Contact the local NHS Trust, or look on their website, for their work experience scheme. They tend to fill up stupidly quickly, so see if you can look at other Trusts within a possible distance (given that your dd would have to travel there). That way she can look at a range of options. Also I’d suggest trying to find any company with a chemical lab (pharmaceuticals? Agrochemicals?) as it sounds as if lab based work might suit her. Tbh I might pursue that one harder.

Most children I know who applying to do medical degrees get work experience in areas such as care homes, nurseries or other places where they get to observe caring, respecting patients, dealing with relatives, safeguarding, health and safety requirements, PPE, hygiene etc.

Working in a not dissimilar field to dentistry my first advice would be your DD needs to do the leg work of contacting people. In general we will only actively progress an application - good covering letter and CV emailed in from the student themselves. Parents are told their DC need to apply. For every 10 parents who contact us we get 1 DC who puts in their own application.

Do you have local universities? Often they will take students into their science departments, shadowing the technicians, watching activities. If she is at school, then as long as it is with the permission of school, the placement can count as a regulated placement, so insured. Obviously restricted as to what she can do, but will give her a flavour of sciences in action.

Can she offer to do general admin type work experience local dentists. May be a way in.?
They may let her sit on reception.

Agree it's unfair as those with contacts will be getting the work experience.

Your local councils may have work experience eg environmental health, flood prevention

Bristol say this.

It's very, very difficult for us to offer work experience in surgery now. My dentist (the biggest corporate group) offer this online work experience course https://www.mydentist.co.uk/careers/about-mydentist/dental-work-experience-at-mydentist

I actually live in your area, I'd be happy to meet you both & talk her through what it's really like. (I've named changed for this but if you pm me I'm happy to give you my email and you can check out I am who I say I am)

That’s why the universities are happy with much broader experiences.

Hi all,

Thank you so so much to everyone that has replied on this thread. There are some really good ideas here. Me and my DD are going to work through all the suggestions this weekend and hopefully it will lead to something productive.