How to write an email for work experience (with template!) –
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Introduction 👋
Getting work experience can be one of the most valuable ways to develop your career.
A study by CBI found that after attitude (82%), having relevant work experience/industrial placements is the most important thing that employers look for when recruiting graduates (58%).
This means that your work experience is so important, some employers might even value your work experience over your qualification results!
This makes it really important that you get some brilliant quality work experience.
And how can you get great work experience?
Writing a great email to ask for it! ✍️
Here’s our ultimate guide to writing work experience emails.
(Skip ahead to the email template here! ⏩)
1. Research the organisation 🕵️♀️
When you’re writing an email to an organisation to ask for work experience, it’s important to know as much as possible about them! 🧠
Start by researching different organisations and potential positions you could work in within them.
Each organisation that you write to should have a tailored email, so that it feels personal and shows that you really care about gaining the work experience. 💖
If you send the exact same email to different organisations, it won’t feel as personal and may make them less likely to offer you a work experience placement.
Before you start writing your cover email, make sure to research the organisation’s:
- Goals – what is their mission? What problems are they trying to solve? 🏆
- Values/culture – what’s it like to work there? Are they very professional, laid back, creative? 🤝
- Services available for customers – do they sell products, or give people different services? 🏢
- Work they’ve done in the past – what have they achieved? 🏅
- Customers – who do they serve? 🙋♀️
- Best qualities – what do you like about them? 🤩
2. Start with a template ✍️
Once you’ve done your research, get started with a template for your cover email. There are plenty of email templates available online, or on different document editing software packages e.g. Microsoft Word.
Make sure that the email template you use is:
- Easy to read
- Professional-looking
- Suitable for email
3. Add contact details and an email subject line📱
Your contact details 🤳
Next, write your contact information as a “signature” at the bottom of your email.
Make sure to include your:
- First name and surname
- Phone number
- Email address
It doesn’t have to be too fancy (there are lots of templates online!), it could be as simple as:
Laura Abraham
Student at The Grown-Up School
Email: laura@thegrownupschool.com
Phone: 07457 795748
The organisation’s contact details 👩💼
Make sure to add to the email:
- Organisation’s name 🙋♀️
- Dear [recipient name], – ideally try to find the name of the person in charge of work experience placements and use their name and job title to make the lesson feel personal (they might work in HR/Human Resources). If you can’t find an individual person’s name, you could write something like “Dear HR,” “Dear [Organisation name]”, or “To whom it may concern,”. 👩💼
Email subject line ✍️
The subject line in an email is a quick way for people to find out why you’re emailing them.
For a work experience email you can keep it very simple with something like “Student Work Experience Request for <organisation name>”
4. Introduce yourself briefly 🙋♀️
Next, start writing your email by explaining:
- your name
- what school year you’re in
- where you attend school
This gives a quick bit of background so they know who they’re being contacted by, but also helps you to get to the point of explaining why you’re writing pretty quickly. 🎯
Organisations don’t have a lot of spare time these days, so it’s important to try and avoid waffling!
You could say something like,
“My name is Laura Abraham, and I’m a Year 10 student at The Grown-Up School in Cardiff.”
5. Briefly explain why you’re writing ✍️
Next, briefly explain why you’re contacting the organisation.
This could be a few short sentences to explain:
- that you’re interested in gaining work experience at the organisation
- the work experience relates to your career goals and would help you
- why you’d like work experience from this organisation specifically – are you connected to them in any way?
You could say something like:
“I’m writing to you today to express my interest in gaining a work experience placement at Big Boss Business. I’m keen to explore a career in [insert industry], and gaining experience at Big Boss Business would be invaluable towards my career development.”
6. Explain how the work experience would benefit you 💞
Now that you’ve briefly introduced yourself and explained why you’re getting in touch, you can start to go into a bit more detail about yourself and why you’re a great person to do work experience with.
Make sure to include:
What you’re studying and your career/experience/qualification goals 🏆
Next, explain what you’re studying (organisations love helping students, so it’s important to play this card!)
You could say something like:
“I am currently studying towards 9 GCSEs, including English, maths, science, art, history, and Spanish, with a view to complete further qualification in [insert topic]. I’m hoping to gain practical work experience related to [insert topic].”
Why the organisation are a great fit for you 🧩
Next, explain why:
- this organisation takes your interest (a compliment goes a long way!)
- the organisation are a great fit to help you achieve your career goals. 🔗
Based on your research, you could say that they’re a great fit because:
- they work with customers you want to support in the future 🧑🤝🧑
- their previous work is really impressive and you’d love to be a part of something similar 🏆
- their organisation/company values really align with your beliefs 💖
- you really believe in their mission, and want to help them achieve it 🚀
- you really love the products/services they offer and would love to do something similar in the future 🎁
You could say something like:
“I’m particularly interested in the work Big Boss Business does because your company values really align with my beliefs, and the kind of colleague I want to be in the future.”
7. Explain how the work experience could benefit them 🙌
As a busy organisation, they might worry that you:
- Will have a bad attitude e.g. not being respectful, being lazy, not listening 🙄
- Won’t be very helpful 🤷♀️
- Might offend people 🤬
- Won’t work very hard for them 😴
This is your opportunity to reassure them that you’re a worthwhile investment for their valuable time and expertise. 🙌
In the next paragraph you can highlight your valuable qualities and skills such as:
- Writing skills
- Confident speaking skills
- Customer service skills/experience
- Maths skills
- Work or volunteering experience you’ve already got
- Personality traits – enthusiasm, confident, detail-oriented (38 good personality traits to talk about in job interviews 😎)
- Clubs you belong to that give you work skills e.g. writing clubs, sports clubs
- Hobbies that give you work skills hobbies or interests.
- Skills (What am I good at? 25 valuable skills 🤩)
If possible, include examples of where you demonstrate those skills (as evidence!) e.g. “I have excellent numeracy skills, and am part of the top set for my year group for maths.”
You could say something like:
“In exchange for your generosity, time, and professional expertise I can offer you an enthusiastic, hardworking, detail-oriented work placement candidate, with confident written and organisational skills. I have advanced technical ability, with excellent skills in Microsoft Excel.
In addition to my schoolwork, I successfully balance a variety of extracurricular activities, and also volunteer at a dog rescue centre. I consistently demonstrate maturity and an exemplary work ethic, and believe that I would be an asset to your organisation. “
8. Offer a personal reference (if possible) ✅
If you can, it’s always great to offer the organisation someone who will speak to them and vouch that you’ll be a great worker.
If you already know someone who already works at the organisation that is willing to do this for you – even better!
In general, you could say something like:
“My supervising teacher Mrs. Sarah Jones is also very keen to act as a positive referee, to reassure you of my aptitude and suitability for working at your organisation.”
9. Next steps 👣
Next, invite the organisation to contact you by putting a “call to action” at the end of the email.
You could say something like:
“I would be delighted to meet you (at your convenience), and look forward to hearing from you soon.”
10. Thank them and sign off🙏
Next, thank the organisation for taking the time to read your email and for considering you for the opportunity.
You could say something like:
“As a student who’s passionate about [what the organisation does], I would be grateful for the opportunity to complete a work experience placement with Big Boss Business.
Thank you for your time and consideration for this opportunity.”
Finally, sign off the email with by saying a closing phrase like:
- Sincerely,
- Best regards,
- Best wishes,
then write your first name and surname e.g.
“Best wishes,
Laura Abraham”
11. Double check the email, and send! 📨
Once you’re done writing, make sure to double check your email for:
- spelling mistakes 🔡
- correct punctuation ⚠️
- incorrect information 🔍
- long sentences (try and keep it snappy!) 📏
You can ask family, friends, and teachers to double check your email, and make sure that it reads well before you send it.
Work experience email example 📨
Subject: Student Work Experience Request for Big Boss Business
Dear Mrs. Boss,
My name is Laura Abraham, and I’m a Year 10 student at The Grown-Up School in Cardiff.
I’m writing to you today to express my interest in gaining a work experience placement at Big Boss Business. I’m keen to explore a career in [insert industry], and gaining experience at Big Boss Business would be invaluable towards my career development.
I am currently studying towards 9 GCSEs, including English, maths, science, art, history, and Spanish, with a view to complete further qualification in [insert topic]. I’m hoping to gain practical work experience related to [insert topic].
I enjoy [insert interests], and I believe that gaining work experience in [insert industry] could allow me to develop my skills further. I’m particularly interested in the work Big Boss Business does because your company values really align with my beliefs, and the kind of colleague I want to be in the future.
In exchange for your generosity, time, and professional expertise I can offer you an enthusiastic, hardworking, detail-oriented work placement candidate, with confident written and organisational skills. I have advanced technical ability, with excellent skills in Microsoft Excel.
In addition to my schoolwork, I successfully balance a variety of extracurricular activities, and also volunteer at a dog rescue centre. I consistently demonstrate maturity and an exemplary work ethic, and believe that I would be an asset to your organisation.
My supervising teacher Mrs. Sarah Jones is also very keen to act as a positive referee, to reassure you of my aptitude and suitability for working at your organisation.
As a student who’s passionate about [what the organisation does], I would be grateful for the opportunity to complete a work experience placement with Big Boss Business.
Thank you for your time and consideration for this opportunity.
I would be delighted to meet you (at your convenience), and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Laura Abraham
Student at The Grown-Up School
Email: laura@thegrownupschool.com
Phone: 07457 795748
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
To write an email for work experience, you should:
- Research the organisation🕵️♀️
- Start with a template✍️
- Add contact details and an email subject📱
- Introduce yourself briefly🙋♀️
- Briefly explain why you’re writing✍️
- Explain how the work experience would benefit you💞
- Explain how the work experience could benefit them🙌
- Offer a personal reference (if possible)✅
- Next steps👣
- Thank them and sign off🙏
- Double check the email, and send!📨
Hopefully this article has helped you to feel more confident about writing emails to request work experience placements.
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about how to write an email for work experience, share this post with them!
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