Work experience

The Work experience element is a key component of the Gold Wolverhampton Enterprise and Employability Award (WEEA). It will both encourage and reward you for gaining experience in a professional setting which will allow you to gain industry exposure and develop employability skills. To achieve the work experience element you will need to complete (at least) 100 hours of work experience. A minimum of 30 hours of work experience must relate to your course or current career goals. 

Why is it important

Having a degree is a valuable asset. However, now more than ever, employers value graduates who have gained some work experience in a professional setting, which has allowed them to develop transferable skills and a set of professional workplace behaviors. No experience is bad experience, there is always some learning to be gained, whether it is about yourself, the employer, the sector or the job role. For this task, we encourage a range of experience on and off campus, local and abroad, paid and unpaid, virtual and face to face. The more experience you can gain, the better prepared you will be to enter the graduate employment market.

How and when to complete

100 hours of work experience can be a combination of the following activities: 

• Volunteering
• Paid work
• Placement (Sandwich/ Module/ Summer)
• Internship
• Mentoring programme
• Business consultancy
• Self- employment or freelance work
• Organising an event
• Working on a live brief
• Experience within the UK or abroad

Your work experience can be paid or unpaid.  You can count work experience that you have accrued as part of a module, as well as extra - curricular work outside of your degree. 

We will accept hours that have been accrued from the date you started your degree until you graduate.  

What to do

We would like all hours to be submitted together in one continuous document and suggest the following methods to keep a record of your 100 hours

Logging 100 hours 

WEEA Time Log- Please feel free to use the WEEA Time Log resource we have created for you to log your hours. If you have completed a similar volunteering log, we can accept this instead. 

Pay slip- A copy or screenshot of pay slips can be accepted- please remove any sensitive information, and only display your name, employment type, and proof of hours 

Headed letter- A signed letter from your employer, supervisor or volunteer coordinator can be accepted. This must provide details about the organisation, proof of your hours undertaken and the nature of the work you have completed 

Hours completed as part of your course- Evidence can be something you have completed as part of your assignment which details how many hours you completed as part of your placement within a module or sandwich year 

Evidence of self-employment- If you have decided to count hours of self-employment or freelance you will need to supplement the time log with all of the following evidence:  

• registration of your business with HMRC; 
• a copy of an invoice to a client, detailing the service or product you have supplied

30 Hours of career related work experience 

In order to pass this task, we would like a minimum of 30 hours to be relatable to your course or career goals.  

In addition to logging your hours, we have created a short written justification form for you to complete, detailing how 30 hours of experience are relatable to your current career goals. This will need to be completed in no more than 500 words.   

Please see the resource- 30 hour- Written Justification available in our Canvas topic

Submit this form together with your proof of hours 

Learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate the ability to find and obtain 100 hours of work experience
2. Develop relevant industry knowledge and gain transferable skills in a professional setting (a minimum of 30 hours of the work experience must relate to your career goals)

Further help

A full list of resources and instructions about this element are available on our Canvas topic.   

If you are completing this task through your course speak to your module tutor for help, or contact careers@wlv.ac.uk. 

We cannot backdate hours that you accrued before you started your course at the University of Wolverhampton.  Please count the most relevant and up-to-date work experience. This will be easier to provide evidence for. If you are unsure whether your work experience can be counted towards the Gold Wolverhampton Enterprise and Employability Award, please ask contact careers@wlv.ac.uk