Grow your career with DHC
At DHC, we offer a wide range of professional career opportunities in non-clinical areas which are essential to delivering great patient care. As part of a project to showcase these career pathways and give young people the chance to experience them firsthand, we have launched a 2-day work experience programme for sixth form students at participating local colleges.
Two successful applicants from each college will join our Head Office team in Redhill, Surrey where they will spend time in different professional disciplines and take part in hands-on tasks, including:
- Administration
- AI
- Contracts
- Data & Analytics
- Finance
- Governance & Compliance
- Human Resources
- IT
- Marketing & Communications
- Operations (Outpatients & Talking Therapies)
- Primary Care Network (PCN) services
What will I gain?
• Real-world experience in non-clinical NHS roles
• Insights into a range of professional career pathways
• Enhancements for UCAS applications and CV
What will a typical day look like?
The timetable below is subject to change, but it provides an indication of how time will be spent across different disciplines.
| Time | Student A | Student B |
|---|---|---|
| 9.30 - 10.45 | Governance & Compliance | HR |
| 10.45 - 12.00 | Human Resources | Finance |
| 12.00 - 13.00 | Lunch | Lunch |
| 13.00 - 14.15 | Finance | Governance & Compliance |
| 14.15 - 15.15 | Marketing & Communications | Marketing & Communications |
| 15.30 - 16.00 | Reflection & Meet with Chief Executive | Reflection & Meet with Chief Executive |
| Time | Student A | Student B |
|---|---|---|
| 9.30 - 10.45 | Data & Analytics | Primary Care Networks |
| 10.45 - 12.00 | Primary Care Networks | Talking Therapies |
| 12.00 - 13.00 | Lunch | Lunch |
| 13.00 - 14.15 | Talking Therapies | Data & Analytics |
| 14.15 - 15.00 | Outpatients | Outpatients |
| 15.00 - 16.00 | Joint Debrief & Q&A | Joint Debrief & Q&A |
Examples of practical tasks
Each timeslot will include a practical task to help students put their learnings into practice, such as:
- Producing a one-page communications plan or patient notice
- Reviewing a live risk register and identifying one control and one mitigation.
- Creating a mini cost–benefit outline for a small service improvement.
- Mapping a patient pathway from referral to follow-up and identifying two bottlenecks.
- Designing a 15-minute multi-disciplinary team (MTD) huddle agenda to improve flow and safety.
- Rewriting a jargon-heavy paragraph into clear, accessible copy.
What colleges are taking part?
This is a pilot programme, which will be launched at careers events at Reigate College on 28th April 2026 and Royal Alexandra and Albert School on 26th June 2026 (Redhill). Work experience dates will be confirmed soon.
If the programme is extended to include other colleges, we will update our website in due course.
