It's impossible to accommodate everyone who approaches us, but we tend to give priority to students taking the University of Westminster BSc Hons Clinical Photography course. These students have to undertake work placements in each year of the three-year course and by their third year are becoming quite competent medical photographers. It also gives us the chance to meet some very promising potential future employees.

 

Younger people doing work experience don't get the same patient contact as the degree students and we usually recommend that they try to get some time in different parts of the hospital, or in other media-related environments as well as ours. I always think that at school age work experience should be as varied as possible, because once you've chosen a professional career, you'll be in the same working environment for years and might not get another opportunity to see such a variety of jobs.

 

Another unpaid form of work experience is an internship. We haven't had an intern before, but the University of Dundee MA in Medical Art course asked us to take one of their high-performing graduates for their internship programme. This gives the intern an opportunity to get fully involved and to complete more substantial projects. We're delighted to have a medical artist with experience of technical and instructional medical art, patient information and 3D modelling. Caitlin Monney will be coming to us for three months from October and we already have some vetry interesting projects lined up for her. 

 

The highly successful CUH Apprenticeship scheme has given us two apprentices, both of whom have gone on to jobs that suited their talents perfectly. One is now PA to a Trust Director and the other is working for a Cambridge University department in print production. We're hoping to appoint some new apprentices this year to help with expanding services.

 

It's difficult to get started in a career these days, but schemes like these can help people to gain vital experience, skills and confidence. The experience can be added to a young person's CV and they can build up their portfolio with some relevant work. The schemes also help us to put our toe in the water of expanding services and provide links with universities, introducing us to fresh ideas and new talent.