Gateway To Work Experience Bursary

The Gateway to Work Experience Bursary is open to:

• An undergraduate Birmingham Scholar student, defined as:
  • Students in receipt of a Pathways to Birmingham - (P2B) which includes the programmes Access to Birmingham, Routes to the Professions, National Access Summer School)
  • Students in receipt of a Realising Opportunities offer
  • Students in receipt of a Sanctuary Scholarship;
  • Care experienced or Care Leavers
• And/or undergraduate students who have a home address in an IMD Quintile 1 (indices of multiple deprivation, IMD Deciles 1 and 2, lowest 20%) neighbourhood *
  *If your home address is in Northern Ireland you will need to contact us with your home postcode so that we can check your eligibility to apply.

If you are a postgraduate student with an Access Scholarship, please visit the Postgraduate Work Experience Bursary webpage

For more information about how the University aims to improve access, provide equal opportunities and enable progress through higher education and in to graduate levels roles click here: Widening Participation and Access - University of Birmingham 

Please note eligibility and priority awards:

1. You must be a registered, enrolled undergraduate student with UK fee status at the University of Birmingham. Students on a Leave of Absence or of external student status are not eligible for funds.
2. You must have secured a UK-work experience opportunity which is low paid (national minimum wage), or unpaid (e.g. volunteering; conference presenting) and have the evidence from your Provider.
3. If you received Gateway funds in 2022, 2023 or 2024 for an international experience, the Gateway to Work Experience team reserve the right to reject your application due to a limited budget or hold your application until the panel meet at their last session in June, for fairness of opportunity. Their decision is final.
4. If you have received Gateway funds in 2022, 2023 or 2024 for a UK based experience, the Gateway to Work Experience team may reject your application due to a limited budget or hold your application until the panel meet at their last session in June, for fairness of opportunity. Their decision is final.

The Bursary is designed to support students financially, offering a contribution to cover the costs associated with unpaid or low-paid work experience. It is not a wage. Eligible students can apply for up to a maximum of £1000 (and a minimum of £20). The amount you apply for will depend on the individual circumstances of your proposed work experience. Evidence will be required.

The work experience could be an insight day, insight week, volunteering, conference presenting, low paid national minimum wage work in a location far from home, work shadowing, observational experiences, or summer employability programmes that include engagement with organisations.

• Modest and reasonable accommodation: (not to cover usual rent costs) - up to £120 per day (e.g. university halls of residences in vacation periods, budget hotels, or similar)
• Travel: train travel, bus travel, ferry, tram, metro and coaches, subject to individual circumstances and location. Please contact us in advance if you require an alternative method of transport.  
• Formal work clothing (including shoes): up to £150 total (for opportunities where you will be required to work in an office where the dress code is smart or smart casual, i.e. in industries such as Investment Banking and Corporate Law where formal work wear is expected. 
• Conference fees: if you are presenting
• Dependent care costs: if these are not being funded by other sources.

We recognise that you may have other costs, and your application will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The budget template enables to you to state other reasonable costs which apply to you, and your individual circumstances. 

• International experiences and associated costs
• Bills
• Food items
• Course related placements or electives where the experience is outside of the summer vacation period and 12-month placements which form part of a degree
• Attending conferences or other educational visits
• Career related open days
• Retrospective work experience bursary applications
• Work experience bursary applications for academic year 2025/26

The Bursary also cannot be used to support work experience or internships considered to conflict with the principles or policies of the University or the Student charter. More information on the University’s charter and statutes can be found on the University Legislation webpage.

Applications are open from January to 31^st May 2025.

A panel will review your application in the first week of every month. Funds are therefore granted monthly. You should expect to hear of an outcome after the panel meets, in the following week or soon after.

Please note that the Gateway team from Careers Network will not chase you for missing information which you have not submitted, or if it is unclear. A new application will have to be submitted, where you will start the process again.  

Funds are available until all bursary funding is allocated. Careers Network reserve the right to close the Gateway to Work Experience Bursary before the end of May 2025.  

It is recommended to apply as early as possible due to budget limitations. Awards will be granted monthly, with the panel meeting in the first week of every month. A bursary award is not guaranteed, and it is a financial contribution and may not cover all costs. If your application is missing information, the panel is likely to reject your application. Please take the time to read how to apply.

Instructions to complete the application: 

1. Ensure you have received an offer for work experience and have retained this evidence i.e. confirmation by email or offer letter, which includes dates of starting and finishing this opportunity. This is required in the application form. 
2. Retain evidence of pay, such as within the offer letter to upload to the Application Form. 
3. Investigate your essential costs. These should be added to the budget-evidence document
4. Contact your work experience provider to complete a Provider Declaration Form. This is for your own health and safety while on your work experience. 
5. Complete the Risk Assessment Form. This helps you to assess the level of risk, identifying what hazard or activity could cause injury, illness, or harm.
   
   Once the above steps have been completed:
6. Navigate to the application form and begin – submit the above documents in the relevant sections and answer any other questions to be best of your ability. Useful information to have at hand are:  

• Your personal details (e.g. name, ID number, email address, etc). 
• Your work experience opportunity details (e.g. organisation name, location, etc).
• Summary of your work experience opportunity. 
• An understanding of how the proposed work experience will contribute towards your personal and professional development, as well as your future career aspirations. 

7. Wait for us to review. The review panel meets in the first week of every month. The final review will take place in the first week of June. Your application must be in no later than Sunday 1st June, raising any questions before submission.

The Gateway team reserves the right to close Bursary applications at any time, should funds be allocated before the panel meets for the final time. An announcement will be made on this webpage should this occur.

To complete your application, you must ensure the budget template; risk assessment and provider declaration files are named with your student ID and full name.  

E.g. ‘123456 - JOHN SMITH – RISK ASSESSMENT’.  

For those ONLY requesting travel funding for insight days, work experience interviews or presenting at a conference: 

1. Complete the entire application form. 
2. Only provide evidence of your opportunity and budget template. 
   
   Reupload these documents in the sections asking for risk assessment and provider declaration, as you don’t need to supply those. Please make it clear you are only requesting funds for travel. 

Failure to provide this documentation and with your name/ID may result in your application being rejected. Therefore, a new application will have to be submitted in lieu of these. 

• Your work experience must not be part of your degree or placement programme if it is not undertaken in the summer or is a 12-month placement.
• The experience does not exceed the recommended hours of work in term-time (a maximum of 20 hours per week).
• You complete the post-programme evaluation Teams form, to help you reflect on your experience and how beneficial you found the bursary. Your evaluation is vital to help assess whether funds should be committed again.
• The experience must not compromise your health and safety, or that of those around you.
• If you are due to attend a health / medical related opportunity, you understand that these are observational opportunities only. Students are not to engage in any hands-on involvement as the insurance may not cover any liability incurred by the individual (such as malpractice and injury to others)
• It must not endorse illegal activity. 
• It must not risk the University’s reputation through immoral, unethical, offensive, or unprofessional behaviour. 
• It must not be from (or associated with) the tobacco or vaping Industries, the sex industry or pyramid style selling schemes.
• The organisation has the required Public Liability and Employer Liability insurances in place, a Health and Safety policy, Equal Opportunities Policy and has conducted a risk assessment. 
• The work experience does not require you to work in a private residential address that is not your own. 

• You have structured supervision in place, to ensure you are fully briefed, assisted and regularly receive feedback on your progress.   

We will not be offering bursaries for international work experiences through this process. To learn about international work experiences and gain funding, please access the Go Global homepage. You can find out about the different summer opportunities (volunteering & internships) available via Enrol in My Global Story. Should you have any questions, please contact:  goglobalsummer@contacts.bham.ac.uk

• Student Development Scholarships - for all undergraduates and postgraduates undertaking worthwhile and original vacation projects (in the UK or abroad), which do not constitute an examinable part of their degree programme. This award is not available to students who are fully funded, for example through scholarships, Research Council awards or equivalent. Closing date: 31^st January 2025.
• Students who apply through Go Global Summer will be assessed for Turing grant funding and international Gateway as part of the same application process via the Go Global team. Priority will be given to students from widening participation backgrounds. Placements must have a minimum duration of 4 weeks (a minimum of 28 days including travel). For any enquiries regarding international opportunities, please contact goglobalsummer@contacts.bham.ac.uk. Turing Funds also offer extra support for students with special educational needs and disabilities.
• Additional sources of funding for work experience can be found reviewing our ‘Alternative sources of funding’ webpage and the Undergraduate Funding Database to explore other funding options that may support you, or to contact the CN internships team for more information.

Please apply via this application form.

Documents you will need to complete can be found here. Please note that you will have to log in with your student credentials to view this page and download the forms.

If you have any questions, contact the Gateway team at Careers Network: workexperience@contact.bham.ac.uk