Early careers, apprenticeships and work experience
Looking for work experience, your first job, or a new career? Get hands-on experience, build your skills and discover the amazing array of opportunities available at the British Library.
We’re more than a Library and offer roles in library services, business administration, finance, customer services and more.
Find your apprenticeship, school work experience, volunteering or paid internship with us.
Apprenticeships
We offer a great start if you're leaving school or changing career. Do you want to gain new skills and experiences in a workplace like no other? Come and learn on the job with us.
Vacancies will be posted on our jobs site and on the government website.
Apprenticeships frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Why do an apprenticeship at the British Library?
We work hard to share our vast collection of books, newspapers, music, sound recordings, web pages and digital content with everyone, both in the UK and around the globe.
Whether you’re just leaving school or changing career, this is great start for you. You’ll be paid a competitive salary and get time to complete a recognised qualification. Your manager can help you to decide what working patterns are best for you and you’ll receive a range of benefits to support you along the way.
You’ll also have the chance to learn from our experienced staff and work with other apprentices in different areas.
Who are you looking for?
We strive to employ passionate, diverse and forward-thinking people to undertake a variety of roles. An apprenticeship is an opportunity to learn, and we recognise that it may be a completely new working environment for you.
You can apply for an apprenticeship if you're aged 16 or older, not in full-time education and live in England. To make sure that this is a worthwhile learning opportunity for you, you cannot have a qualification at the same level or higher in the same subject as the apprenticeship
We don’t expect you to have previous work experience in the sector or any formal qualifications. You just need to be eager to learn and happy to adapt to new challenges.
We pride ourselves on being a diverse, inclusive and welcoming organisation and we aim to create a workforce which reflects our local communities. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethically diverse and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce and in the Library sector. As part of our Disability Confident Committed status, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.
What apprenticeships are available?
We have four types of apprenticeship:
Customer Service Practitioner, level 2 - 15 months
Learn about your customers, your organisation and how you impact their experience.
Business Administrator, level 3 - 18 months
Learn about business processes and the factors that impact the business and how you can best support the organisation.
Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant, level 3 - 21 months
Learn about our collection - how we keep it safe for future generations through conservation and how we curate it with our users at the heart of everything we do. In this role, you’ll be able to rotate between three teams to gain experience in all areas of the Library.
Assistant Accountant, level 3 - 18 months
Learn about financial accounting, reporting and management and work towards a Level 3 AAT qualification.
All the training follows an apprenticeship standard which can be found on the Institute of Apprenticeships website.
School work experience
Our invaluable work experience will set you up for the future. If you’re a student considering a placement with us, here’s what you need to know.
In-person work experience
We offer in-person placements to students attending a school local to Boston Spa or in Camden.
Work experience typically lasts one week during the summer term and aims to support you with gaining valuable experiences and skills, including communication, problem-solving and team working.
We want to help you find placements that let you explore your interests and future ambitions, so we’ve designed several work experience options. You’ll be able to choose your preferred options and we’ll do our best to match you with these depending on availability.
Contact earlycareers@bl.uk for more information.
Virtual work experience
Can’t get to us in person? You can now take part in our virtual work experience programme from home.
Apply now to join us online and discover what it’s like to work here in a wide range of roles from working directly with our collection in exhibitions and curation to helping the public use our resources in the learning team and our business and IP centre.
Our virtual work experience is a great way to learn more about the British Library. Click the link above to see if the programme is currently live, or sign up to the next programme date.
Contact earlycareers@bl.uk for more information.
Volunteering, internships and other opportunities
We occasionally advertise paid internship and unpaid volunteering positions, often in some of our most exciting, specialist areas. These are advertised on our jobs site.
If you are a university student looking for an unpaid work experience placement as part of your course, please contact your university to see if they already work in partnership with us.
We are hoping to make more volunteering and student placement opportunities available in the future to boost the number of people that can get involved with what we do.
Contact us
Visit our jobs site for the latest opportunities or email earlycareers@bl.uk for more information.