Placements with The Forward Trust

We actively welcome students with lived experience of addiction recovery, offending, or homelessness. Your insight, resilience, and understanding make our services stronger and help us deliver truly person-centred support.

Placements are available across our wide range of services, including Community, Prison, Probation, Substance Misuse, Mental Health, Housing, Employment, and Head Office settings.

At Head Office and remotely, placements are available across our directorates, including:

• Business Development

• Service Improvement

• Research

• Fundraising

• Communications

• Events

• Human Resources (HR)

• Governance

• Facilities Management

• IT

• Therapeutic Quality and Training (TQT)

• Families and Young People

• Recovery Support

Our Approach to Placements

We offer both structured placements (such as a formal Year in Industry as part of your degree) and flexible placements that can be fitted around your studies.

Every placement is tailored to you. We’ll work with you to align the experience with your course requirements, personal goals, and preferred learning style. You’ll receive regular supervision, reflective practice sessions, and ongoing support from experienced practitioners.

You’ll gain hands-on experience supporting people in recovery or personal transformation - developing professional skills while making a genuine difference.

Year in Industry Placements

Our Year in Industry placements are designed for students completing a sandwich year as part of their degree.

Because The Forward Trust is a non-profit organisation delivering essential health, social care, and criminal justice services, these placements qualify as “Unpaid Service” under Student Finance England (SFE).

This means you may still be eligible for your usual maintenance loan during your placement year - but we recommend confirming your eligibility directly with SFE before applying.

Level 4 Counselling Placements

We offer opportunities for Level 4 counselling students to gain their required 100 hours of supervised client work. You’ll work within our recovery services, developing practical skills in client support, group facilitation, and reflective practice with a member of our service team. 

Social Work and Related Courses

For social work, policing, applied forensic investigation and other vocational courses, our placements provide invaluable experience in frontline support, multi-agency working, and person-centred care. You’ll contribute to helping people build motivation, set goals, and sustain positive change.

Screening and Vetting

All placements require a DBS check, and if you’re based in a prison, additional security vetting will be needed. This ensures the safety and wellbeing of both clients and staff.

Benefits

While our placements are unpaid, you’ll gain much more than experience:

• A contribution toward travel expenses and a lunch allowance (where applicable).

• Regular supervision and mentoring from experienced professionals.

• Structured development opportunities to grow your confidence and skills.

• The chance to make a real difference in people’s lives.

• A reference and professional experience that will strengthen future applications.

How to Apply

View our current placement and volunteering opportunities.

If you don’t see an opportunity that fits, reach out directly to the service you’re interested in — we’re always open to discussing bespoke placement options.

See contact details for all of our services.

We recommend applying early to allow time for DBS checks, interviews, and placement matching.