Student Placements

Thank you for your interest in completing a student placement with Cambridge Acorn Project.

Our student placements for this year are now full, and we are not currently accepting further applications.

If you are interested in future placement opportunities, you are welcome to complete our expression of interest form. This helps us understand who may be hoping to join us in the future, and we will be in touch when new opportunities become available.

About our Student Placements

Cambridge Acorn Project offers a small number of student placements each year for trainee counsellors and psychotherapists who are developing their practice in therapeutic work with children, young people and families.

Our placements provide the opportunity to gain experience within a trauma-informed, relational and socially conscious organisation. We support trainees to develop their confidence, deepen their therapeutic understanding and reflect on the complexity of working alongside children and families who have experienced trauma, abuse and financial hardship.

At Cambridge Acorn Project we believe that children and families are more than the challenges they face. Our work is built around relationships, curiosity and understanding the whole context of someone’s life.

We are looking for trainees who share our commitment to compassionate, ethical and inclusive practice.

What the Placement Offers 

A placement with CAP provides: 

• Specialist experience in trauma‑informed therapeutic work with children and young people. 

• Long‑term therapeutic relationships, allowing you to develop depth, consistency and confidence in your practice. 

• Monthly line management and casework supervision (non‑clinical), delivered by qualified and experienced therapeutic practitioners*. 

• A supportive, reflective team culture, with opportunities to learn from colleagues and engage in reflective discussions. 

• Experience within a social‑justice‑driven charity, where accessibility, ethics and relational practice are central. 

• Opportunities to contribute to wider therapeutic or creative projects, depending on service needs. 

• Transport expenses during your placement.

  *Please note: Trainees must arrange and fund their own clinical supervision in line with their training provider’s requirements. 

We are committed to safe and inclusive recruitment

Safeguarding and safer recruitment process

Safeguarding is at the heart of Cambridge Acorn Project including our safe recruitment processes. We undertake safe recruitment checks on anyone who wants to work with us as we work with children and adults at risk. This means that all our roles which have contact with services users or access to sensitive information, including this position, require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as well as two references.

This post involves working directly with children and/or vulnerable adults (as well as the processing of sensitive information connected to this under the Data Protection Act 1998). If you are disqualified from working with children or vulnerable adults, we are unable to offer you any posts that involve working with these groups. Across the UK, it is an offence for an individual who has been barred to apply for a regulated position.

Self-disclosure

If you are shortlisted, we will ask you to complete a self-disclosure form. This will be reviewed before your interview.

The self-disclosure form will ask for any criminal convictions, regulatory body sanctions or disqualifications from working with children or vulnerable adults, as well as any police or social services enquiries undertaken following allegations made against you. We may ask about this during the interview.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

Cambridge Acorn Project believes in a world that is equitable, safe, and free from abuse and coercion and we apply these principles to every part of our organisation fostering equality and inclusion in everything we do. We promote a culture of respect and a sense of belonging for all staff, volunteers, and service users where everyone is free to be themselves. We value lived experience, and we welcome applications from people with marginalised identities or experiences. Cambridge Acorn Project is a warm, flexible, and supportive organisation, and we want to work within a diverse collegiate team where everyone’s opinion and experience matters, and everyone has a voice.

Data protection

Cambridge Acorn Project processes data in line with The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. For more information, please see our terms of service.