It may be possible to achieve a Silver or Gold CREST Award during a summer placement, although this will depend on each individual case. Your Local CREST Coordinator will be able to advise you further. In some circumstances they might even be able to help you arrange a placement in your local area, although it is always best to try other ways of looking for opportunities too!
Here are some other ideas:
- You could contact your local STEMNET contract holder for local opportunities:
http://www.stemnet.org.uk/contact [1]
- You could also contact your local Education Business Partnership for their advice:
http://www.iebe.org.uk/ [2]
- You could contact large companies (such as GlaxoSmithKline) to see if they offer work experience to school students:
http://www.gsk.com/careers/uk-stud-school-workexperience.htm [3]
- Some industries have a careers website where you can look for work experience placements. Here is the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry careers website:
http://careers.abpi.org.uk/getting-into-the-industry/pharmaceutical-recruiters/Pages/default.aspx [4]
- You could also apply for Nuffield Science Bursaries for Schools and Colleges:
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/students [5]
- The Wellcome Trust run work experience placements for 14-19 year olds:
http://www.sanger.ac.uk/workstudy/placements/ [6]
- You can also contact Universities around the country for summer placements as some offer work experience in their research facilities. Three examples are given below:
The MRC Clinical Research Centre at Imperial College has a Summer Studentship programme. It offers undergraduate and A-level students the opportunity to learn first-hand about biological and clinical science by working in a cutting-edge research laboratory:
http://www.csc.mrc.ac.uk/Jobs/SummerStudentships/SummerStudentships/ [7]
Queen's University Belfast offers lab experience in their Marine Laboratory in Portaferry and Belfast:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/QueensUniversityMarineLaboratory/education/ [8]
UCL also have Summer work experience for A-level students in their labs:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/zebrafish-group/outreach/ [9]
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