Work experience can play an important role in pursuing any career. Having some work experience can make you stand out from the crowd when applying for courses, training, and jobs.
Work experience can be helpful for anyone of any age and at any stage of their career. It can help you to gain skills and decide what to do if you are:
- looking for your first job
- not sure what sector you want to work in
- unsure of what role you want to do
- develop your hard and soft skills
Work experience allows you to explore different career paths and industries, helping you make informed decisions about your future career.
Work experience provides opportunities to build professional networks
Work experience on your CV can make you more attractive to potential employers.
Gaining hands-on experience can boost your confidence in your abilities and ensure that you are ready to enter the workforce.
Work experience available at Oxfordshire County Council
OCC offers a wide variety of work experience options. Please note that work experience is unpaid at Oxfordshire County Council.
Service-specific work experience
The council regularly receives requests for work experience placements from individuals, their parents or carers, or from their school directly. Should you be interested in work experience with a certain department, please send your inquiry specifying your preferred dates to earlycareers@oxfordshire.gov.uk
Please be aware that the respective service processes these queries, and not all placement requests might be accommodated.
Please note that Children's Services, Adult Services, and Legal Services cannot accept ad hoc requests due to the nature of their work.
Local government work experience weeks
A new 'Local Government' work experience programme for 14-18-year-olds in Oxfordshire has been introduced. It is scheduled for three different weeks within the academic year. This week-long initiative will provide one-day placements across different council services throughout the week, aiming to give students insights into various job types available at the council.
Potential placement service areas include:
- Change and Engagement
- Customer Service
- Environment
- Finance
- FM
- HR Data
- Internal Comms
- IT
- Museums
- Policy
- Property
- Public Health
- Tree Services
2025/26 dates
- 2-6 March 2026
- 27 April - 1 May 2026
- 27 April - 1 May 2026
Applicants will need to register their interest
Since there are limited spots available, be sure to explain your interest in this work experience and the reasons you've chosen these specific service areas.