Getting Work Experience in Animation

Volunteering

Volunteering looks great on a CV and is something that employers value highly. It can provide you with opportunities to improve and develop your professional and interpersonal skills, and is something you can do locally, elsewhere in the country or abroad. 

Hallam Volunteering offers a wide range of excellent relevant projects for you to get involved in whilst you are studying for your degree. If you have your own idea for a volunteer activity, why not contact the volunteering team to discuss how they can support you. These experiences will provide you with a wealth of evidence to refer to in your CVs and job applications.

Visit our Volunteering page for more information.

Work shadow / work experience

These are excellent ways to establish contacts in your chosen field. Successful work placements can often lead to offers of work at a later date or generate leads to other opportunities through the valuable contacts made whilst on work placement. Try to use your holiday periods and free time during term times to exploit these opportunities. These experiences will provide you with a wealth of evidence to refer to in your CVs/job applications. Contact local companies directly, use the local yellow pages or creative directories e.g. CDI Directory Sheffield.

Internships

Unpaid internships should be for no longer than four weeks.  The company should provide you with a meaningful training programme designed to help improve both your sector specific and generic employability skills. An experienced member of staff should be nominated to act as your mentor for the duration of your time with the company. Travel expenses should be reimbursed and flexible working hours should be on offer. 

Paid internships normally refer to placements of more than four weeks. However, a paid internship also applies if you are required by your employer to work specified hours or undertake specific duties. You can expect to receive a salary equal to or more than the national minimum wage of £6.70 per hour for employees over the age of 21 years.

The CareerHub vacancy database is a good place to start looking for internships, but the suggested links also provide sources of available internships.

Last modified: 
Tuesday, February 23, 2016 - 15:56