Arrow In this section

Thank you for choosing Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to apply for a work experience placement!

We are delighted that you are expressing an interest in completing work experience at our Trust.

Work experience offers opportunities to individuals of all ages to gain a first-hand insight into different clinical and non-clinical areas across our two hospitals, Royal Preston and Chorley and South Ribble.

Clinical skills - education team. Patients as educators.

The types of work experience we offer

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals are successfully placing students in clinical and non-clinical work experience placements throughout the year, in a variety of different departments.

We offer experience opportunities in numerous areas such as medical and surgical wards, ophthalmology, dietetics, medical engineering, administration and many more.

Other areas we offer experience in, such as maternity, theatres, physiotherapy and pathology, are based on specific programme dates. If you are interested in work experience in these areas you may not get to request the dates these are available, but will instead be offered a place on a specific programme.

We are proud to share that in 2018-2019, we provided 349 students with work experience placements and then in 2019-2020, we placed an outstanding 424 students in their requested fields!

A full list of placement areas can be found on the application form, linked below.

The types of applicants we accept

Anyone who meets the application criteria will be considered for a work experience or work based placement and is welcome to apply. Positions are available for individuals aged fourteen and upwards.

However, depending on the applicant’s age, certain conditions must be met prior to requests being successful.

Any and all applications for those underage will only be accepted via school request or with a school signatory and stamp to endorse the application. An approval signature is also required from a parent or guardian. School contact details including a school email address must be provided.

Applications where the individual is over the age of sixteen can be accepted from both educational organisations as part of curriculum requirements, or on an individual basis for those interested in a career within the NHS.

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to offer clinical placements to any applicant who has yet to reach the age of sixteen years, due to insurance restrictions.

How and when to apply

Our application procedure is simple.

All individuals interested in completing a work experience placement MUST do so online. Please find the application link here https://nhscareersnw.co.uk/register/

You will be able to access the full list of placement areas through the application procedure.

Once again, all requests from students aged fourteen – eighteen years must be supported by an educational establishment (school, college or university) or recognised intermediary eg. The Prince’s Trust, Department of Work and Pensions, Lancashire County Council services etc.

All applications from those above the age of eighteen must be supported by a referee, in line with our Human Resources guidelines.

Due to the overwhelming amount of applications we receive each year, we believe the fairest way to accept requests is to open the Work Experience window for a limited amount of time, ensuring that all applications can be received and processed properly by the appropriate channels.

The next Work Experience window will open again at 9:00am on Tuesday, 2nd May 2023 and will close promptly at midnight on Wednesday, 31st May 2023.

How applicants are chosen

The number of applicants we accept are unlimited, but placement is offered on a first come, first served basis with limited positions available, depending on the area of interest.

So make sure to get your applications in quickly to maximise your chances of being successful in your preferred field!

What happens if an applicant is unsuccessful

Unfortunately, due to sheer demand, we are sometimes unable to assign a placement to all application requests.

If an application is rejected for this reason we will do our utmost to allocate the individual with an alternative placement date and a member of our team will respond to the applicant’s request, as soon as possible.

Please ensure that all forms are completed fully as, due to demand, if an application does not meet trust standard it will unfortunately be rejected and the individual will have to begin the request procedure again once the Work Experience window reopens.

If an application is unsuccessful for an alternative reason, a member of our work experience department will be in contact with the individual to explain why.

Who to get in touch with

For any and all further information or queries, please email workexperience@lthtr.nhs.uk and a member of the team will get back to you as quickly as possible.

We appreciate that preparing for an application procedure can be an exciting, yet uncertain time but may we ask that all applicants please refrain from contact individual departments in relation to work experience.

We are committed to providing excellent work experience placement opportunities to all those who aspire to have a career within the NHS and the best way to uphold our standards is by ensuring all requests are dealt with in a fair and appropriate manner.

Thank you for applying! Please be sure to check the website and the trust’s social media for any updates.