Advice on work experience for students graduating in Psychology who are hoping to move on to clinical psychology training.
THE CONTEXT
Not long ago, I ran into a recent Nottingham Psychology graduate who asked me about the best way to get suitable work experience to prepare for clinical psychology training. I was unsure of the answer, so I contacted Prof Nadina Lincoln who runs - and had originally set up - the clinical training program in Nottingham. Her advice (below) seemed so helpful that I thought it should be made available to others. Please note: Some of this advice applies specifically to the Nottingham area, and may be most relevant to the time it was given (August 2016).
THE ADVICE
In terms of DClin Psy . . .
S/he will need on average 2 years relevant work experience before applying for the DCLin Psy course to have any hope of getting shortlisted.
Tips are
- Do varied voluntary work.
- Apply for NHS jobs well before closing date. They often close applications when they have a fixed number of applications, rather than at the advertised closing date. Sometimes it is just 2 days after advert first appears.
- Think about other types of NHS jobs that give relevant experience eg nursing assistant , rehab assistant, etc.
- Try jobs which provide patient contact outside the NHS eg nursing homes, charities (stroke Association, Headway), private health care (Brain Injuries Trust, Huntercombe group).
- Apply for part-time jobs. If people are good these are often then extended to full-time. Also you can often get extra hours within the organisation. We recently advertised two 0.3 whole-time-equivalent posts knowing that in a couple of months we would be able to increase them to full-time.
ALSO SEE
https://careerweb.leeds.ac.uk/download/downloads/id/243/work_experience_for_psychology_careers
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/psychology/alumni/psychology_careers/career_info/clinical_work_experience.page
https://www.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/ideas/sectors/psychology-careers/
https://www.mlp.manchester.ac.uk/media/services/careersandemployabilitydivision/mlp/Psychological-sciences.pdf
https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/clinical_psychology_work_experience.pdf
https://canvas.bham.ac.uk/courses/12000/files/1773031/download?wrap=1
https://blogs.bath.ac.uk/careers/2019/03/01/alumni-interview-assistant-psychologist-and-international-graduate/