Work experience for 15 year old. HElP/SUGGESTIONS PLS

sdavi3680

Most counties have a voluntary organisation. Maybe it's worth contacting them?

Odd_Job

What does he really want to do? Getting work experience (in my experience) is pretty similar to getting actual work. If there's something he's passionate about doing, it will shine through on any application. Whereas, if you're just looking for any kind of general experience of work the application or request will just look dreary - his interest won't show.

My thoughts would be to not let him waste this opportunity on just getting a job in a supermarket or general office. Make sure he's ringing up companies he has a real interest for in the long term. It sounds dramatic, but whatever experience he has of real life work now (even though it is just for a week) will create the ground work for how he feels about work for the rest of his life. If it's dreary and rubbish now, he'll assume all work will be the same. Try and get him going for things he'll be able to talk about and amaze his class mates with when they all go back to school the next week.

Ideas off the top of my head:
Local radio station (even the restricted license volunteer ones, I'm sure they would take him and it would be interesting)

Local TV news team

Local newspaper

Local football team (even if that is in admin or something similar, he'd maybe have a passion for it.)

Local theatre

What's his dream job for when he's older? Really - what 15 year old dreams of becoming an accountant or a builder? Make him ring those fantasy jobs up today, let him give it a try while he's still invincible! It won't be so easy 3, 5 or 10 years down the line. Who knows, one day when he's in a big house with a nice car, couple of grand kids for you and a few postings on the mortgage free wannabe board, he might even thank you for it!

Whatever happens - good luck with it! I hope he gets what he wants.

flea72

contact Trident (edexcel). they should have a list of all local companies that have been checked and are registered to take people on work experience

is this being run by his school, or is it just something he is doing off his own back?

if instigated by the school, then i would say that Trident are already involved. you only have to find your own placement, if you know of a company you want to work for, or the school doesnt have any placements in your chosen field

tbh, most careers advisers recommend you dont do work experience in your preferred profession

if he is due to start this in a couple of weeks, he should really have been touting around business' a good 12m ago. Trident have 1000s of companies signed up for work experience placements - most schools start the process in year 10, with them actually doing the work experience in year 11, due to the time it takes to get everything sorted

throwing in the need to find your own placement, a few weeks before it starts, doesnt sound right to me

F

amandab308

Thank-you for all of your suggestions. He is open to anything at this point as he has been trying for quite some time to secure 'anything'! My husbands company cannot take anyone under the age of 16 and I work as a nurse and it's the same at the hospital.

'maninthe street' as he is only 15 he is indeed still at school but unfortunately his school does not arrange placements (as was the case when I was at school) otherwise he would have at least had that to fall back on.

We have been through the whole 'positive attitude/enthusiasm/dressed appropriately' conversation and I have seen him in action and can see no problem with his approach.

We like the sound of the charity work so will look further into that.

Thanks again :-)

angeltreats

When I was a legal secretary we had lots of work experience students - some around your son's age from secondary schools but more usually it would be older girls from secretarial colleges who wanted to be legal secretaries. There was always plenty for them to do like filing or a bit of easy typing, and in the firm I worked in in London we would try to take them to court for a day if we had something going on there, just for a bit of variety for them.

I'd say it's definitely worth trying the local law firms to see if they're able to offer him anything.

amandab308

Thank-you angeltreats :-)

Savvy_Sue

DS3 worked in the regional office of one of the big trade unions, and LOVED going out canvassing!

This was after I'd contacted every single cricket bat manufacturer in the country. :rotfl: None would let him loose in the workshop with the tools.

I also contacted the county cricket club, they USED to do work experience but Elf'n'Safety meant they couldn't any more. It is a real problem.

paulwf

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I also contacted the county cricket club, they USED to do work experience but Elf'n'Safety meant they couldn't any more. It is a real problem.

There isn't really much point from a business perspective to take on work experience students...some students are good and some are bad but they take up a lot of time and in a lot of jobs they can't really be trained to do something productive in a week.

There is also the feeling of guilt if you just get them to make the tea and do the hoovering...yet generally that's how Saturday assistants in small businesses usually start off and build up their skills from there until they are doing the same job as regular staff.

When I helped manage a small business we took on 3 or 4 then simply couldn't be bothered after that, neither side was getting much out of it. Even at M&S students could make a right hash of shelf stacking that would take weeks to put right and the only thing the students learnt was it was worth staying on at school so you don't end up being a shelf stacker

emmell

My son worked at a Golf Course pro shop for two weeks and loved it (played golf most of the time) his friend worked at a Stables, his only interest in horses was having a bet at the races. They both thoroughly enjoyed it and got good reports as well.

boopopps

Anyone based in Wolverhampton can try Tarmac based in Ettingshall. I used to work there in Finance and each regional team would have a work experience. I used to support and train them on our team. They also have them in Admin departments.

Also in Wolverhampton The Express and Star take on work experience in all departments. Again, when I worked in the finance department we regularly had them. They also have them in other departments like postal, circulation, IT etc.

Its tough going, even back in 1991 we had to try and find somewhere ourselves as the school only had limited spaces. I was lucky in that I got selected to apply for special places at the then Wolverhampton Polytechnic, but this was by no means easy, I had to go through interviews for a role in PR. I was so glad I got the role, god knows what I would have done if I had not.

Try your local libaries too, I have known these take work experience on.

Good Luck