Free UK Work Experience Finder

Yes, completely. There is no sign-up, no payment and no limit on how many times you can search. We built it as a free resource to help students find healthcare work experience near them, because the hardest part is often simply knowing who to contact.

Start by finding the NHS settings near you: GP surgeries and hospitals are NHS, and many care homes and hospices work closely with the NHS too. Enter your postcode in the finder above, filter to NHS, then contact several places with a short, polite request to shadow or volunteer. Be flexible on dates, offer to complete a DBS check, and follow up if you do not hear back. Persistence matters more than anything.

Use the finder above: enter your postcode, choose how far you will travel, and you will get a distance-sorted list of GP surgeries and hospitals near you, each with contact details and a ready-to-send email. For medicine, a mix of a GP placement and a caring role such as a care home or hospice is ideal.

Almost every UK medical and dental school still expects some experience of a caring or clinical setting, and it gives you essential material for your personal statement and interviews. What matters most is not where you went but what you learned: tutors want thoughtful reflection on patient care, teamwork and the realities of the profession.

There is no fixed number of hours, and most medical schools deliberately avoid setting one so that students without easy access are not disadvantaged. A common, realistic pattern is a short period of clinical observation (for example a week, or a few days) plus a longer, regular caring or volunteering commitment over several months. Quality of reflection beats quantity of hours every time.

Shadowing a dentist is the gold standard for a dentistry application. Filter the finder to dental practices, contact several near you, and ask to observe for a few days. If clinical shadowing is hard to find, a caring role in a care home or hospice still demonstrates the values dental schools look for, and you can read our dentistry work experience guide for what to record.

Filter the finder to hospitals and contact the volunteer services or work experience team rather than a specific ward. Hospital placements are competitive and often have set application windows and an age requirement of 18, so apply early and have GP, care home or hospice options as a backup.

GP surgeries are one of the most valuable and accessible settings for aspiring medics. Find the practices nearest you in the finder, address your request to the practice manager, and offer to fit around the surgery and complete a DBS check. If in-person shadowing is not possible, the free Observe GP virtual programme from the Royal College of GPs is well respected.

Yes, and they are among the most accessible and rewarding settings. Care homes and hospices are usually more open to students than busy hospitals, and the experience of caring for people directly is exactly what admissions tutors hope you will reflect on for medicine, dentistry, nursing and beyond.

Most nursing and midwifery courses value some caring experience, whether paid or voluntary. Care homes, hospices and GP surgeries are ideal and all searchable in the finder. As with medicine, what matters is showing you understand the role and can reflect on what you learned.

Open any result in the finder and tap Draft request email. It writes a polite, personalised message for you, which you can copy or open in your email app. Most places do not publish an email address, so find theirs on their website's contact page or by calling, address it to the practice manager, keep it short, and offer to complete a DBS check.

This is completely normal, so do not take it personally. Contact several places rather than one, follow up after a couple of weeks with a polite call, and line up alternatives such as care home volunteering or free virtual work experience in the meantime. Persistence is part of the process and worth mentioning at interview.

It varies by setting. Many places accept students from 16, while some hospital placements require you to be 18. Anything patient-facing will usually involve a DBS check and a confidentiality agreement. Always check the specific requirements with each provider, which the request email politely offers to do.

Yes, and they are well regarded when in-person placements are hard to find. Observe GP from the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School Virtual Work Experience are both free and designed specifically for aspiring medics. Use them alongside, not instead of, real caring experience where you can.

As early as you can, ideally the year before you apply. Popular placements and hospital programmes fill up months ahead, and a longer volunteering commitment naturally needs to start sooner. Year 11 and the start of Year 12 are great times to begin lining things up.

If you are studying in the UK, yes: the same approach works, and care homes, hospices and GP surgeries are all open to you. If you are applying from overseas, UK medical schools understand that in-person UK placements may not be possible, so equivalent experience in your own country plus free virtual work experience is perfectly acceptable.

There is no single best placement. A strong, realistic profile combines a short clinical observation (a GP surgery or hospital) with a longer caring commitment (a care home, hospice or volunteering role), topped up with free virtual work experience. Variety and genuine reflection beat a single impressive-sounding placement.

Work experience does not change your UCAT score, but it is central to the rest of your application: it gives you the real examples you need for your personal statement and the values and insight interviewers probe at MMIs. Strong reflection on work experience is one of the clearest signals of a well-prepared applicant.

Enter your postcode in the finder at the top of this page and choose how far you will travel. It instantly maps every GP surgery, dental practice, hospital, care home and hospice near you, sorted by distance, so 'work experience near me' becomes a single search rather than hours of googling. Then contact the closest few that suit the career you are aiming for.

The same settings work brilliantly for nursing and allied health: care homes, hospices and GP surgeries are accessible and highly relevant, and pharmacies are ideal for pharmacy applicants. Filter the finder to those settings near you, contact several, and focus your reflection on patient care and teamwork. Hospital volunteering is also worth pursuing for physiotherapy and nursing.

Vet schools want a wide mix of animal and clinical experience: veterinary practices, farms, kennels, catteries, stables and more. This finder focuses on human-healthcare settings, so for the full vet picture see our veterinary work experience guide, which covers exactly what counts and how much you need.

Yes, Year 12 is the ideal time to start, and many students begin lining things up in Year 11. Most settings accept students from 16, though some hospital placements require you to be 18. Use the summer between Year 12 and Year 13 for a focused placement, and build a longer volunteering commitment around school during term time.

Clinical work experience usually means time spent observing or supporting care in a clinical setting: shadowing a doctor or dentist, or helping in a GP surgery, hospital, care home or hospice. Admissions tutors also value non-clinical caring experience such as volunteering, because the reflection it produces is just as powerful, so a blend of both is ideal.

Shadowing means observing a professional as they work. To arrange it, find local GP surgeries, hospitals or dental practices in the finder, then send a short, polite request to the practice manager or the doctor or dentist directly, offering to fit around them and complete a DBS check. Be clear that you are hoping to observe for a day or two as part of your university application.

Yes. Every result in the finder has a 'Draft request email' button that writes a polite, personalised template for you, tailored to that setting and to the course you are applying for. You can copy it or open it in your email app, then send it to the address on the provider's website. It saves you writing the same awkward first email over and over.

We compile it from publicly available records of registered healthcare providers across the country, and refresh it regularly. It is a starting point for finding who to contact, so always confirm details directly with the provider before you visit.