Psychology

[babybombo]

Hi everyone,
I want to study Psychology at University and then go into clinical psychology.
The prospectus' for the Uni's I want to go to say that relevant work experience is recommended,but I don't know what I could do.

I don't think I could get any at a mental health clinic because of the whole patient confidentiality thing.
I tried going through my local volunteer centre but they were no help whatsoever.

Anyone have any ideas about what I could do?

xx

[bednobs]

what about volunteering at an elederly day care unit? or getting a part time job as a carer

[moonshadow]

Contact MIND the national association for mental health they are always looking for volunteers to help in their drop in centres the web site is www.mind.org.uk

[{Dakota}]

Could the Uni you want to enroll with not be able to point you in the right direction?

[mountainboo]

Do you have the relevant qualifications to get into University? Are you under 19 or a mature student? It's my understanding that if you have your GCSE's and A'levels (including Psychology) then you should be accepted

[SRH]

Mountain boo - I did psychology at uni and just got in with my A-level results but suspect competition's a bit tougher these days, especially to get into a top uni.

Babybombo - can't hurt to get some experience before uni. As mentioned before, speak to the uni psychology head of dept to find out exactly what they are looking for.

[Hermia]

Maybe you need to broaden your definition of what constitutes psychology work experience. For example I have just looked at some volunteer web sites for opportunities in my local area and I found the following:

A school wants someone to go in and listen to children read. Well, psychology covers child psychology and educational psychology. Plus it will help your teaching and observation skills which are both useful.

Various organisations wanting people to befriend/mentor the elderly, the disabled and young people who have problems. This may not be an area of psychology that particularly interests you, but many psychology graduates will go into these sort of fields so it's good experience.

Various organisations wanting people to train as advisors.

I think all these would look good on an application form. You just need to make it sound good! I think they ask for work experience just so they can see that someone is geniunely interested in psychology. They just want to weed out the students who just randomly seem to pick a subject or want to study psychology 'cause they once saw an episode of Cracker!

Some useful volunteering websites are:

http://www.do-it.org.uk/
http://www.csv.org.uk/Volunteer/
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/
http://www.timebank.org.uk/

[babybombo]

Thanks to everyone for your answers.

Mountain Boo I'm in Scotland so maybe the entry systems are a bit different.
I am 16 and at the end of May I will be 17 and have all the relevant qualifications I need. I am however staying on a further year so it would be the next year I apply.

Thanks for all your ideas, I tried contacting my local volunteer centre, I spoke to someone once and they never got back to me after 2 further letters from me. I'll give them another try.

I'll also have a look at MIND's website, thanks moonshadow.

Thanks for all the links Hermia, I'll work my way through them at the weekend, I have a preliminary exam tomorrow so occupied with that just now.

Thanks again everyone
xx