work experience for uni, help?!

[gabcritcher]

hey!
i am in year 12 and am doing AS graphics along with dance maths and biology, i would like to do graphics an university but i know they like work experience when considereing appplications. does anyone have any ideas for what i could do? or where?
any help is much appreciated:D xx

[Kai16]

Hey =) I was wondering about this too same time last year!
You could do a Google search to find local graphics companies in your area and then call them and ask. If not then you could also try and ask for work experience at local printing companies because you could still learn useful skills there and be around design. Hopefully this helps a bit =)

[Bonvin]

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about work experience when applying for University courses.

The main thing they would be interested in seeing is you work and maybe more importantly, ideas. If you can show a good selection of sketchbooks full of workings that would be a great.

Not sure if they still have interviews at University/College, but if you can show an genuine passion then you won't go wrong. Your time at uni is all about learning, experimenting with you work, trying new techniques, making mistakes and learning form them. The tutors won't expect somebody who has a work experience... that part comes when you start looking for jobs!

Good luck with your application.

[gabcritcher]

thanks both of you,
i have heard that experience is mainly what universitys are looking at now as it will be in the personal statement? i have had a look round and found a few print shops that would be able to offer it me so hopefully all should work out.
thanks again:) x

[Kai16]

Thats cool, good luck with it =)
Even if you don't get one though, its not so bad. I didn't end up doing a work placement last year so I didn't have anything to put about that on my personal statement but still getting some offers xD They'll be more interested in your portfolio =)

[gabcritcher]

oh yeah,
aha goood! are you looking to do graphic design at uni?

[Kai16]

Lol yeah I am =) interviews are finally over!
I applied for foundations as well as Graphic Design so had tons of interviews xD

[SparkCreative]

Do a foundation first. There are loads of careers you can go into from an artistic base and you'll find out about all of them there. Best of all, you just get to be creative for a year, mess with all kinds of media, make stuff, draw stuff, paint stuff, it's a brilliant time. IMO, courses aren't so bothered about work experience, more about your folio and sketchbooks and enthusiasm. If you do want to get work experience, the foundation course tutors should be able to help with that.

[Kai16]

Yeah I originally really wanted to do a foundation and try all aspects of art and design, and everyone says that its the best year of their lives =) Since having interviews though and talking to my teachers, and also with the increase in fees coming up, i'm not sure if its better for me to go straight into a degree. Just because, at foundation, I will probably end up relating all my work to graphics xD and also I still don't understand how there can be enough time on a foundation to build a portfolio tailored to the right degree course, when students only pick their specialisms around January! =s
Lol I think a foundation would be good for me but i've also got offers from the uni's that I really liked so in a bit of a dilemma! =s

[Katy Blackham]

Hi, when I applied for my Uni course they valued a Foundation course above work experience due to the freedom to explore, but that was 6 years ago so things might have changed. However on leaving Uni I found that a lot of employers wanted you to have some work experience and they valued this very highly.

So my advice would be, if you have a uni offer and the course/uni is offering everything you want then jump on it and enjoy the next 3 years. But make sure, during those 3 years, that you get some work experience, even if it is only a month or two, as it will really help you in the future and with your course.
However is the Uni course isn't 100% perfect for you then it is worth doing the Foundation, it won’t affect but only aid future Uni applications.