Cover letter for a school work experience placement
A work experience placement is usually the first letter anyone writes, at fourteen or fifteen, with an empty CV and a school deadline. Nobody expects skills. What the reader is deciding is whether you will turn up, whether you will be safe on site, and whether looking after you for a week will be pleasant. So the letter answers those three questions, in that order — and says the dates, which is the detail most pupils forget.
The letter, in full
Copy it, then replace the facts with your own. The notes below say what each paragraph is there to do.
Version texte, prête à coller
Tom Whitaker Bristol · tom.whitaker@email.com · 07700 900 512 Harbourside Veterinary Practice Re: application for the position of Work experience placement Dear Dr Owusu, I am in Year 10 at Ashcombe School and I am looking for a week of work experience from 16 to 20 June. I am writing to you rather than to a list of practices because I would like to see small-animal work specifically. I want to be a vet, and I would like to find out what the job is on an ordinary day rather than on the television version of it. I have kept two rabbits for four years and I do the feeding, the cleaning and the weekly health check myself, so I am used to handling animals calmly and to noticing when one is off form. I am reliable about time. I have a paper round six mornings a week and I have not missed one since I started in September. My science teacher, Mr Handley, has agreed to be a referee and I can give you his school email. I would be glad to do whatever is useful, including cleaning and reception work. My school will send the placement agreement and insurance form once you agree, and I can come in for a short meeting beforehand if that helps. Yours sincerely,
What each paragraph does
Say who you are and give the exact dates
Year group, school, and the week you need. This is the information the reader has to have before anything else, and the one most often left out — a letter without dates cannot be answered, only filed.
Say why this place and not another
One sentence is enough, and it is what separates you from the thirty identical letters that arrive each spring. “I am writing to you rather than to a list” only works if the next clause says what is specific about them.
Turn everyday life into evidence
At fifteen the evidence is not professional, and it does not need to be. Rabbits fed for four years, a paper round never missed: these are facts about reliability and care, which is exactly what is being assessed.
Remove the obstacles before they are raised
Offer the dull tasks, name a referee, and mention the school's paperwork and insurance. Every one of these is a reason the reader might otherwise have said no without replying.
The mistakes specific to this case
Writing the same letter to twenty places
It shows, because the letter contains nothing that could not be sent anywhere. A single sentence naming what this business does turns a circular into a request, and takes two minutes to write.
Promising passion instead of proof
“I have always loved animals” is what every letter says, and it can neither be checked nor remembered. Four years of feeding two rabbits can be, and it makes the same point without asking to be believed.
Leaving the practical questions open
Not saying the dates, not mentioning the insurance, not giving a way to reply: each of these leaves work for the reader. Placements go to the pupils who made saying yes the easy option.
Frequently asked questions
I have no experience at all. What do I put?
What you actually do: a paper round, a sports team, caring for an animal, helping in a family business, a school role. None of it is professional experience, and none of it is meant to be — it is evidence of turning up and following through.
Should I send it by email or by post?
Email, unless the business asks otherwise, with the letter in the body of the message rather than as an attachment nobody opens. Put the dates in the subject line: it is what the reader checks first.
Who do I address it to?
Find one name — a website, a phone call to reception, thirty seconds of looking. Where there is genuinely none, “Dear Sir or Madam” is correct, and then the letter closes with “Yours faithfully” rather than “Yours sincerely”.
How long should it be?
Four short paragraphs on one page. At this stage a longer letter almost always means padding, and the reader is a busy person deciding in under a minute whether to take on a fifteen-year-old for a week.
What changes from country to country
United Kingdom
Work experience in Year 10 or 11 is a normal part of school, and businesses expect the school to supply an agreement and insurance — say so, it removes the main reason for refusing.
United States
There is no standard equivalent week; what exists is job shadowing, usually a day or two, and volunteering. Ask for shadowing by name, and check the minimum age rules for the sector before writing.