Work Placement Opportunities
We welcome enthusiastic students wishing to gain first-hand experience within our support setting, and encourage them to attend The Next Step Trust as part of their work placement.
By interacting directly within a working environment students gain a valuable insight allowing them to make informed choices about their potential future career path.
Below are some testimonials from students who have enjoyed their time at the Centre on work placements.
If you are interested in a work placement scheme at The Next Step Trust, please contact us.
Charlotte
“My name is Charlotte and I have completed a week placement at The Next Step Trust. I found this placement very enjoyable and interesting. It has also opened my eyes to how people with disabilities live everyday. All the staff at The Next Step Trust were very friendly and welcoming during my time here. They always made sure I was OK and were willing to answer any questions I had. The service users at The Next Step Trust were also very friendly and a pleasure to work with. I have enjoyed my time at The Next step Trust very much and I would like to thank you for this fantastic experience”.
Callista
My work placement “Learning Journey” at The Next Step Trust:
“I am currently doing my third year at Bradford University, studying a BSC Hons Degree in Health Well Being and Social Care. I started my work placement as a first year student and have gained lots of experience.
I really enjoyed my time at Next Step and I found my experience there to be relevant to my learning outcomes. I have learnt to work with others, to communicate effectively, to work on my own initiative, to keep records and to bring the best out of me. I have also found the team of employees to be very helpful and caring. Being part of the team was one of the best things I have been blessed with during my placement.
I then decided to come back again to do my second year placement. I also managed to achieve my learning outcomes. I was part of the team working with service users. I have learnt to be an effective learner and worker at the same time. I have learnt to reflect on my own contribution and decisions. This has helped me to correct myself in my own learning. I have been given the opportunity to work with different service users and different employees and doing different activities. I also managed to take part in some of the courses like moving and handling, food and hygiene.
I called this my placement learning journey because I still think it is a learning process and as an individual you can never stop learning in this field of work. I feel I have gained some knowledge that will help me in making career choices in the future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank every employee at Next Step Trust and most of all the management team for giving me the opportunity to be part of the Next Step team. I have enjoyed working with all of you. Also I would like to thank all the Next Steppers for making me feel welcome and for letting me work with them and learning from them too. I really appreciate everything you have done for me. Thank you”.
Maria
“I am Maria and undertaking a Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care at the University of Central Lancashire. As a student, my experience on work placement at Next Step is one of the best that I will not be able to forget. The management team and staff have made me feel so welcomed and included in the team. Every shift has provided me with new experiences to reflect upon and thus enhanced my skills and knowledge.
I would also like to use this opportunity to say how much I appreciate the hard work and commitment of the management team and staff, which makes a great difference in the service users’ lives, their families and the community as a whole”.
Junaid
“I have been doing my work placement in Next Step Trust for six months. I am a college student from Claderdale College and came to Next Step Trust to do work placement. I am doing Health and Social Care Level 3. When I started my work placement I was nervous because I did not know anyone and I thought I will mess up because I had lack of confidence but when I started I was getting along with the manager and getting along with the staff and they were sweet, nice, helpful, organised, polite, focussed and respectful and all the staff in Next Step Trust helped me boost my confidence high and I felt relaxed and I was feeling comfortable working.
The first three months I started working in Clare Road Next Step Trust and I started looking after people who have disability and first I had to interact and communicate with all the disability people so that I can have that strong bonding with them so they feel comfortable and open up around me. I came once a week every Monday to look after them. I made them tea, drink, get to know them more, have a laugh with them, feed them, help them bake their cakes and take them outside for example.
After three months my second work placement started in the main Next Step Trust at King Cross which was more harder work than Clare Road. The best thing was that I have lots of confidence and I was focussed that I started to get along with the workers and get along with all the disabled people who were in wheelchairs and I had to look after a person in a wheelchair and I had to feed him, take him out and do activities or take him for a walk and his name was Gary and he was sweet and polite. The staff are polite, respectful, organised, engaged, confident and understand each other so well and I always have different service users I had to look after.
I have been doing Health and Social Care for three years and I had knowledge of Health and Social Care but had no experience, but when I started my work placement in Next Step Trust it gained me more knowledge and it made me more interested that now I want to work and look after people with disabilities. This work placement will help me with my qualification and it will help me get in to university and will help me get a job, so I thank all the people who work in Next Step Trust who gave me lots of love and made me part of their family and also they helped me overcome my weakness. Thank you”.