Gateway To Work Experience Bursary

The Gateway to Work Experience Bursary is open to:

• Birmingham Scholars, 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 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.

You can use the post-code checker above to see whether you are eligible to apply. 

The Bursary is designed to support students financially, offering a contribution to cover costs associated with:

• Unpaid or low-paid professional work experience in a location far from home including work shadowing, observational experiences, and summer employability programmes which are also low paid
• Springboard/explorative career opportunities e.g. career insight days, insight weeks, conference presenting
• Interviews

Specifically:

• modest and reasonable accommodation: up to £120 per day (e.g. university halls of residences in vacation periods, budget hotels, or similar)
• travel: via bus, train, ferry, tram, metro, and coaches subject to individual circumstances and location.
• formal work clothing (including shoes): up to £150 total (for opportunities where formal wear is expected i.e. sectors such as Investment Banking and Corporate Law)  
• conference fees
• dependent care costs if these are not being funded by other sources

Update – April 2025:

In addition to the above, we are thrilled to announce that if you apply for The Gateway to Work Experience Bursary to cover costs associated with volunteering and insight days, you will automatically receive £50.  

To receive this, you must apply as usual through the application form and indicate you have secured either a volunteering or insight experience. You are still welcome to apply for associated travel, accommodation, and clothing costs beyond this £50. 

Please note: The eligibility criteria for this £50 Award is the same as The Gateway to Work Experience Bursary: you must be an undergraduate Birmingham Scholar or IMDQ1/2 student. The £50 is awarded per insight or volunteering opportunity only (not for internships), nor per day of said volunteering or insight event. 

Applications are still open for eligible students who need financial assistance to attend low paid and unpaid work experience. However, the £50 Award does not apply to this type of work experience. 

• International experiences and associated costs
• Bills
• Food items
• Non-observational ‘hands-on’ work experience, unless insurance/indemnity from a relevant professional body covers this (see Terms and Conditions)
• Retrospective applications for this bursary, or those for opportunities in academic year 2025/26
• Programme fees and any other costs associated with international work experience
• 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 can be found on the University Legislation webpage.

Applications are open from January to 4^th June 2025.

• A panel will review your application in the first week of every month (the last review being June). Funds are therefore granted monthly. You should expect to hear of an outcome after the panel meets, in the following week or soon after.
• You will not be chased for missing or unclear information submitted to the application form. A new application should be submitted in lieu of these.

Please apply via this application form.

Please ensure the required documents listed on the Bursary Documentation page are completed and submitted to the application form where requested. Ensure the file is named by your Student ID and full-name e.g. ‘123456 - NAME – RISK ASSESSMENT’.

1. Provider Declaration: contact your work experience provider to complete this form for health and safety purposes
2. Risk Assessment (or, if applicable, any risk assessments you may have already completed during onboarding process with your work experience provider)
3. Budget Template

Note: You do not need to provide a risk assessment or provider declaration if you are requesting funds for an interview or explorative career event (e.g., insight day or conference).

Ensure you have also retained the following, required for the application:

• Confirmation of work experience (e.g. letter with start, end and if applicable, pay description)
• Confirmation of event you are attending (e.g. booking email)
• Receipts and screenshots of evidence relating to funds

If you have any questions, contact the Careers Network bursaries team via workexperience@contact.bham.ac.uk.

• The experience does not exceed the recommended hours of work in term-time (a maximum of 20 hours per week).
• 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. This is because the University’s insurance policy does not cover you for indemnity. However, if you’re a member of a relevant professional body, such as, but not exclusively, the MDU or Royal College of Nursing  they may be able to arrange this type of policy for you. Please make yourself aware of any relevant exclusions.  
• If you are covered for clinical indemnity or have arranged this policy with your relevant professional body, we will need to see evidence to be able to provide Gateway funds.
• It must not endorse illegal activity. 
• The organisation has the required Public Liability and Employers insurances in place, a Health & Safety Policy, Equal Opportunities Policy and has conducted a risk assessment to minimise possible risks to you.
• The experience must not ask you to undertake illegal activity in the UK or internationally
• It must not be from (or associated with) the tobacco or vaping Industries, the sex industry or pyramid style selling schemes.
• 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. 
• You complete the post-programme evaluation 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.

• 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.
• Postgraduates are not eligible for The Gateway to Work Experience Bursary. 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