Work experience for 15 year old. HElP/SUGGESTIONS PLS

amandab308

Someone please help.

My 15 year old son has been trying to gain a work experience placement but just keeps hitting brick walls. Most places are telling him they either do not offer work expeience placements or they are unable to get the insurance to cover someone of his age to participate in an placement. He is obviously quite frustrated by this. Has anyone had success in this area or able to suggest where we could try? He is due to start in the next few weeks!!

N9eav

No solutions, but if it helps we are in the same position. Insurance, CRB checks etc... many places don't want the hastle anymore and yet schools still insist that Kids go and find somewhere

Oldernotwiser

Can his parents (or other relatives) offer any help by pulling strings where they work? Do you have any friends or relatives who are self employed?

kingfisherblue

Primary schools will often offer work experience places. My daughter had to arrange her own placement about four years ago, but she avoided the most local schools as other students were trying to get into them for their own placements. Instead, she asked at a school on the other side of town, where no secondary schools were on placement the same weeks. She was accepted immediately and really enjoyed her time there.

Depending on his interests, the OP's son might also want to consider a special school. He could then ask for either primary or secondary age classes.

Another option is to try local government departments - libraries, town hall, sports centres, or sometimes community centres (many CCs have been handed over to the community though, and are run by management boards, not the council).

Both schools and council departments should be covered by the relevant insurance.

scooby088

As a suggestion i'd enquire with your local council about placements on work experience, i'm sure they'd be able to help.

Was thinking dont children have it hard these days, i remember having my work experience arranged by my school but that was 18 years ago.

tanith

Young family members work experience has been arranged by the relevent High Schools in my experience..

maninthestreet

amandab308 wrote: »

Someone please help.

My 15 year old son has been trying to gain a work experience placement but just keeps hitting brick walls. Most places are telling him they either do not offer work expeience placements or they are unable to get the insurance to cover someone of his age to participate in an placement. He is obviously quite frustrated by this. Has anyone had success in this area or able to suggest where we could try? He is due to start in the next few weeks!!

Due to start what? At 15, he's going to be still at school. As others have said, WE for school children is normally something arranged through the educational establishment they attend.

heretolearn_2

Some schools arrange this, others expect the kids to arrange their own, which isn't easy.

What type of work experience is he looking for? Some areas are a no-go due to legal/insurance issues (i.e. if he wants to be a builder, no one is going to let a 15 year old on-site).

Charities are often desperate for volunteers - has he tried approaching them? Also try and think of more unusual types of businesses and not just the ones in the high street or on the main industrial areas. Any hotels? Tourist attractions? Golf courses?

Also, what is he asking to do? We are an accountancy firm and get tons of people (not just schoolkids) wanting work experience in accounting. We always say no - there's nothing they can usefully do without constant supervision and lots of training, and we are not a training establishment, our staff are here to work and make a profit for us. Also, we couldn't possibly let them lose on clients' work, it wouldn't be ethical.

But we can offer work experience in our admin and marketing depts. Most of them turn their nose up at that, but we've had a really fantastic 16 year old come in twice. she wants to be an accountant and just really enjoyed finding out about the environment, and she was extremely good at what we gave her to do.

So maybe he needs to think a bit about what is realistic for him to ask to do when he approaches companies. Work experience people are either a pain in the neck, or very useful, and it's the pain in the neck ones that make a lot of employers not want to bother. They mean well but cause more work than they contribute. What can he offer to do to make it clear to the employers that he will be a very useful one?

StevieTravel

I have to say, I think I disagree with some of the people here that many companies dont want work experience people around.

The trick is always to find a company with a history of employing work experience people, or approacing a very small (<15) company that hasnt had any experience (and thus had no bad experience) of work experience people in the past.

Think about very local law/accountancy firms for a start, i would suggest. Approacing them face to face normally has a higher success rate than a tentative email.

paulwf

Try supermarkets...I worked at M&S and they would take groups of 2 for a week at a time. Very boring for them but as it is short notice it is worth a try.

Also review how he is approaching employers. Treat it like applying for a job and perhaps send a letter first and then call in smartly dressed. I used to get lots of scruffily dressed teens mumbling something incomprehensible about work experience. When asked why they wanted to work there they'd look blank. I'm not saying this applies to your son but it is worth checking he is creating a good impression when applying.

a_sav

Had a similar problem last year no doubt will again, best advice is to chat with the work experience co-ordinator, who should be able to chat with the child and narrow down a few previous employers used in the past who may help
Good luck