Each week we explain how to look for work experience. This time, archaeology

Are you interested in the past - not 100 or 200 years ago but 4,000, 5,000 or even 10,000 years ago? Do you like to know about how people lived and worked in ancient civilisations? If the answer is yes, then archaeology could be for you - and few other countries can offer so much that is of interest to archaeologists. So get digging.

How busy an archaeology firm is at any given time will dictate the amount of work experience it might be able to offer. "We have taken on students in the past, but it is dependent on having suitable work available," says Jacinta Kiely of Eachtra Archaeological Projects. And, she explains, there are health-and-safety issues on archaeological sites. "So work placements are generally office-based."

If you are serious about archaeology and want to experience a dig on your placement, there is a way to deal with the health-and-safety issues. Fás offers a one-day Safe Pass for over-16s. Designed for construction workers, the pass ensures a basic knowledge of health and safety.

"Once students have this cert, we'll bring them on site," says Steve Mandel of Cultural Resource Development Services. "We take on students quite regularly, and so we want to give them an all-round feel for the job. In the office we usually give them their own study area, like where they live and how to examine it from an archaeological perspective. Then we'll bring them on to sites. We get them to dig. There is a position within archaeology, called general operative, which doesn't require any qualification, so students can in fact contribute to our work on sites. Then they will be brought in for post-excavation - samples and finds are labelled and processed and then sent to specialists."

So when are archaeologists called out for duty? "Most of the work we do is associated with the construction industry and is undertaken prior to commencement of construction," says Kiely. "The first phase of the work comprises archaeological assessments and pre-development testing, and we sometimes undertake excavations in advance of work going ahead on, say, a housing development or some other infrastructure project."

Kiely warns any budding Indiana Joneses that archaeology is not all about getting down and dirty. "Whatever length of time you spend in the field, there is as much time spent in the office, on post-excavation work, typing and filing all site records - such as finds: soil, wood, bone samples - and writing descriptions and interpretations of features recorded on site. Computer graphics is also a big part of it. Cad and Illustrator, for example, are both used regularly for survey work and to finalise site plans and drawings of artefacts."

So what will employers look for? A professional application is always a good start. "Treat it like a real job," says Mandel. "At any given time we might have 10 digs going on around the country, so there is plenty of work." Plan ahead, apply well in advance and, as always, research the company you're applying to. "I wouldn't advise anyone looking to faff around for a week to apply to an archaeological firm."