Work experience

You must ensure that you meet the minimum work-experience requirement for the scholarship before submitting your Chevening application. Chevening Scholarships require that applicants have at least two years of work experience.

If you do not already have the required level of work experience, you will be unable to submit your application.

Eligible types of work experience

The types of work experience that are eligible for Chevening can include:

• Full-time employment
• Part-time employment
• Voluntary work
• Paid or unpaid internships

Work experience can be completed before, during, or after graduating from your undergraduate studies, however, any mandatory employment that counted towards your undergraduate or postgraduate course would not be eligible.

You do not need to meet the work experience requirement in one period of employment. Applicants can submit up to fifteen different employment periods in order to meet the requirement. If you have held more than fifteen positions then please enter the periods which make up the greatest number of hours worked.

If you are currently employed, it is not a requirement of Chevening that you resign from your position. You are advised to discuss your application with your employer and it is your responsibility to ensure that they will release you if you are selected for a Chevening Scholarship. You can refer them to the employers page on our website. The British embassy/high commission or the Chevening Secretariat cannot intervene in this.

How to calculate your work experience

Your entries will be calculated automatically by multiplying the number of weeks worked by the number of hours worked per week.

2,800 hours of work equates to approximately two years of full-time employment, based on the assumption that full-time employees work on average 35 hours per week and 40 weeks per year.

However, if you have worked over 2,800 hours in less than two years (i.e. by working more than 35 hours per week), you are also eligible.

You may meet the 2,800 hours work experience requirement over a longer period than two years, if for example, you have worked part-time. To calculate the number of hours worked, the application system will automatically multiply your weekly hours by the number of weeks in the role.

Read our work experience blog post for more information on Chevening’s work experience requirement.