The adult social care sector is a very varied place to work, and no two days are the same. We’re very proud to host work placement students from Exeter College, so that we can show them the work we do at multiple levels.

From February to May 2026, we have hosted the lovely Esme. Esme is currently in the first year of her Level 3 Health and Social Care course, and has plans to go into nursing in the future.

We sat down with Esme to find out more about her experience.

‘I’ve really enjoyed my placement. I think it’s kind of what I was expecting, like you know, going out to people’s houses and seeing them. But I think it has really opened my eyes to how people live their lives day-to-day within their own homes, compared to a care home. ‘I’ve never seen people being cared for, in any capacity really’ Esme said. We asked her if there was a stand-out moment that she has particularly enjoyed so far. ‘When we took Kath out in her wheelchair. I think that was a lovely moment for her and for me as well’.

Esme is the second work placement student to take part in our work placement project. For this, she is making a poster to explain what Advance Care Planning is to the public, and she plans to make another poster aimed at professionals within health and social care.

Her work placement mentor, Joseph, said: ‘Advance care planning can be a really invaluable tool, so Esme’s poster will go a long way in helping reassure people on how they can engage with it, if they feel that it’s right for them. We’re really pleased of Esme’s work so far, and look forward to seeing the finished product soon’

Esme said of her project: ‘I think it’s going okay. I’m researching and trying to get all my notes down. I think it’s always good to learn as much as you can, and get as much information as possible. I think, going into nursing, whether I go into adults or paediatrics, it’ll be useful’.

Esme will begin the second year of her course in September. We asked her what her plans are after that. She said: ‘I’m not sure; part of me would love to go travelling. It’s something that intrigues me, but I just don’t know if I should do it before or after I’ve gained my degree’.

‘I’ve always been interested in the medical field. Every child is like “I want to be a doctor!”, but being a doctor’s very hard. But I want to stick to the medical field, and I’ve always loved kids and have younger siblings who I’ve always enjoyed taking care of. So I thought maybe I’d look into paediatric nursing’.

As part of her placement, Esme has experienced a lot of our in-house training programme. We asked her if she has learnt anything that she thinks she can apply to her future career: ‘I think a lot of it, like safeguarding, health & safety…I think Eating, Drinking, and Swallowing as well was pretty useful’.

Finally, we asked Esme if she had any advice for future work placement students, other than to bring a crash helmet and knee pads. ‘Wrist pads? No, just come into it with an open mind. Be open about the people you’re going out to meet, and be respectful to those around you’.

Joseph said, ‘It’s been a real pleasure having Esme carry out her work placement with us. Dawn and I regularly say to each other how great and engaged she is with everything we throw at her! She’s done a lot, and has even gotten a bit hands-on at times, such as helping a person to brush their hair, helping to apply compression stockings, making someone’s breakfast, transporting a person from room to room etc. Whilst work placement students are always supervised by our staff, we know it can get pretty boring for them to just stand and watch, so we try to get them involved where they, and the person we’re visiting, feel comfortable enough to do so.

‘She’s been engaging really well with people we support, and is very proactive with starting conversations with them. We’d like to thank everyone we support for being on their best behaviour and making us look good!’

If you or someone you know is looking for work experience, either for a course or for Work Experience Week at school or college, get in touch with us. We’ll be more than happy to talk about a placement in our care team and/or our administration team.