School work experience

Young people smiling at the Library.

Our invaluable work experience will set you up for the future.

Each year we offer a number of short, unpaid work opportunities to school students seeking an interesting and relevant work experience placement as part of their curriculum.

If you’re a student considering a placement with us, here’s what you need to know. Work experience typically lasts one or two weeks 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 which allow you to explore your interests and future ambitions, so we’ve designed a number of 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.

How to apply

We have now reached the capacity for our in-person Work Experience Programme 2023 and applications have closed.

If you would still like to learn more about the British Library, check out our virtual work experience programme.

Virtual work experience

Can’t get to us in person? You can now take part in our virtual work experience programme from your own home. Apply now to join us online and discover what it’s like to work here in a wide range of roles from curators to marketing.

Case studies from our staff

Imaging Services north team member working a large-scale scanner
…Our team is constantly learning and developing…

We have been at the forefront of digitisation and digital preservation projects for over two decades.

Two Application Support team members at a PC
…You won't find these kind of challenges in many other organisations…

Whilst we’re structured like many other IT teams, what we do day-to-day ultimately leads to the preservation of our history and collective knowledge. And, because our collection is very diverse, it could be print or sound based.

A librarian sitting by a computer
…The sheer size of the place means there are great development opportunities…

We help people find and use material held in some of the most unusual and hard to search parts of our collection – answering questions from Readers as well as those phoned in or sent to us as emails and letters, or via our QuestionPoint and Chat services.

Learn more

A man reaching for a book in an archive

Our departments and functions

Learn about the diverse range of teams and people who work here.

An apprentice in our Business and IP Centre

Internships

Find out about our paid internships.

Three apprentices sitting down

Apprenticeships

Do you have what it takes to be our next apprentice?

A volunteer cataloguing sound clips

Volunteering

Got a few hours to spare? Then come and volunteer at the British Library.