As a leading employer in Plymouth, Livewell Southwest has the opportunity to help shape and support the future workforce and allow some of our colleagues the chance to develop their supervisory and teaching skills. Getting involved in work experience shows that Livewell Southwest is committed to helping the community even further and fits with our moral, social and ethical responsibilities.
Work experience is one of the most important factors shaping young people’s perceptions of the world of work. It helps them to learn about a particular occupation, gain valuable personal skills such as independence and teamwork, and to understand the expectations of employers.
Due to the high level of requests we receive we have changed our contact information to make it easier for you to get to the right person. Requests are usually one of the following areas:
- Annual Work Experience Week experience – Early July for Years 10 and 12. Please read the section ‘Annual Work Experience Weeks’.
- If you are seeking placement as part of your Level 5 (Undergraduate) health studies programme and seeking an optional / elective placement as part of this existing degree pathway, please visit the student placement page.
- For T Levels and Extended BTec Placement requests please see below – there is a new email address to use and unfortunately due to the volume we will be unable to respond to enquiries on any other email addresses.
Work Experience Offers
Annual Work Experience Week requests
Livewell Southwest has a range of Mental Health and Community Services – it is not always possible to shadow / accompany our staff due to the nature / vulnerability of our service users, with this in mind we have created classroom-based programmes during the month of July. These are primarily for year 12 students.
Health and Social Care including Psychology – this programme introduces students to the different services we provide and has previously included the following:
- Basic Life Support
- Care Act
- Children Speech and Language Therapy
- Compassionate Care
- Hoarding
- Introduction to Livewell Southwest
- Leg wounds and care
- Occupational Therapy
- Pharmacy
- Physiotherapy
- Podiatry
- Service Users Voice Feedback
- Simulations – try out the bariatric suit
- Understanding Social Care
- Venepuncture / Phlebotomy
- Why Mental Health is Important
- Psychology in different areas such as Autism, Children & Adolescents, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Forensic Psychology, Infant Mental Health, Intellectual Disability, Neuropsychology, Older Adults, Perinatal Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Stroke, Weight Management, Working in community settings, Working in inpatient settings, Youth Offending
For work experience week requests to join this programme (usually 1 of 2 weeks in July) please contact [email protected].
Our ability to offer individual work experience placements for these weeks is exceptionally limited but we are looking all the time to develop more bespoke “weeks” for areas of work.
T Level / BTec Placements
KS5 (Year 12 and 13) Work Experience / Placement requests as part of your T level or Extended BTec qualification
Currently we are unable to offer extended work experience placements for T Levels / Extended BTecs due to the significant number of placement hours needed, the structure of the programme as odd days and level of supervision required. We do believe this is a really important part of our offer and are currently looking at how we could offer placements creatively for those undertaking these courses, we will update this page with any changes.
IN DEVELOPMENT KS5 (Year 12 and 13) one off introductory sessions as part of a T level or Extended BTec qualification
We are working with colleagues to offer short virtual / in person sessions as a group whereby a role / service / pathway / condition is covered to provide a short introduction and inspire you to read around the subject as part of your studies. Details of what’s available will appear here as and when so please keep checking regularly from January 2026.
If your request for a placement is not covered above please email [email protected] with the following information included:
- Your name
- Your course / place of study / year of course
- Your tutor
- What are you are looking for in your placement / what do you need to achieve?
- Duration
- Area of work
- Short personal statement (100-200 words) about yourself and how this opportunity will support your studies.
We are unable to answer emails without all of this information included so please check carefully before clicking send.
Ambassadors
If you are too young for a specific Work Experience Placement (within Mental Health, for example), but wish to learn more about that career, please contact [email protected] to see whether an Ambassador would be able to come in to your school to deliver a talk on their career path.
Livewell Southwest has a group of over 30 Ambassadors who attend career’s events and make visits to schools to discuss their careers. They consist of professionals from the following areas:
- Mental Health Nurses
- Matrons
- Occupational Therapists
- Administration Staff
- Many more
Work experience testimonials
It was an amazing experience and enjoyed every moment and am very appreciative to Neil and the whole team thank you for having me and I hope to work with you all again.
Maisie, my daughter who enjoyed your programme so much last year is hoping to go on to study Psychology at degree level in Brum. Thanks so much again – your programme was part of her inspiration.
Thank you all for this amazing opportunity, I really enjoyed the experience i have gained as well as the knowledge i have been given. Shadowing workers in OT and Physio allowed me to see how you work as well as consider widening my possibilities for future education and work.
I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you for arranging and facilitating the work experience over the last few days for Kaya. I am aware you took time out of your busy days, and I cannot stress the impact in terms of seeing a workplace and the actual application of what he has only read about. He particularly seems to have been struck by the way each of you have arrived at your current posts which has been a life lesson in itself that where he wants to be will only happen with dedication and time. As a result of it he has a much clearer idea of the pathway/ subjects he would like to take, and he is considering other pathways now instead of just the University route.
Contact
Please note that we are always updating our work experience programme so please keep checking this section of our website.