work experience for schoolchildren

red_devil

we had two teenage girls where i volunteer today. They were on work experience from their high school? What do you think of work experience and how beneficial is it?

Kate78

Depends - some schools have a certain number of tasks that pupils have to complete while on work experience (like they have to find out about the company, the job, working hours and the like to get a flavour of the working world). When I worked in a travel agency, we had a girl in and she had a booklet to fill in for school as evidence.

Others just dump them on employers who don't know what to do with them and give them a fortnight of making tea. :mad:

A lot depends on the maturity of the kids, too. At 14/15 some of them are quite independent and use initiative, and others are total babies!

I think on the whole it is worthwhile, though. :cool:

ellay864

My eldest son and most of his friends, and my younger son's friends would say it was a waste of time. Many of them, my son included, chose their own work placement so were not just 'dumped' somewhere but still found little value to it. The main thing my son found was that it made him decide that particular type of job was not what he wanted after all...at least he did learn that from it! The problem is that a lot of employers are really limited on what they can let kids do for various health and safety rules etc, and less companies are willing to take kids on work experience it seems now, because of the paperwork it ties them in
At my son's school they had to complete a work diary, recording what they did, how they felt, what they'd learnt etc so they couldn't get away totally with doing nothing.
My youngest son was one of a handful who really enjoyed his. He loves music, is intending to do it at A level and then uni. He was unable to find anything music related that would take him on so stayed in his own school working in the music department. The teacher let him really get involved, he had one day running a project for Yr 9 kids and was expected to act as a member of staff, not as a student. It was really good experience for him but certainly from what I know of kids at his school most don't feel it's that beneficial and many have felt it was 2 weeks wasted

piratefairy

I think I found my two weeks of work exp really useful. I worked in a law firm, which is what I had thought I wanted to do, and then went on to do a levels and degree in. I've not ended up doing it yet, but could if I wanted I guess.
Yeah, there ws a bit of photocopying and tea-making, but I was mabnaged really well, and not stuck with the same people every day for two weeks, so managed to fit in a couple of days in reeception, two in court, and some doign research from statute books on a case that was being worked on. So i did get to do a range of different things other than the obvious photocopying etc.

Velcro_Hotdog

I loved my work experience, so much so that they gave me a weekend job which I also loved as I was paid to work along side one of my favourite hobbies. It also gave me a good head start as the money was good and I learnt the value of saving and being responcible. I also grew up pretty quickly as all the other staff where older than me.

busiscoming2

My dd found her placement at the theatre she had classes at as this was the field she wanted to work in. My ds1 knew he wouldnt get a palcement in the fields that interested him so he opted for retail with the thinking it would be experience when he applied for Saturday jobs once he turned 16. He got lucky, the store he did his experience in offered him a Sat job after the second day. So in my opinion they are a great idea.

cazziebo

My daughter got a great placement- and I was surprised there were not any issues with it. She wanted to do medicine, and the school got her work experience in the mental health daycare unit at a hospital. One of the groups she observed was a group of recovered drug addicts which left her completely anti drugs.

She eventually dropped out of dentistry to do a gen science degree, meanwhile working as a carer for autistic childrend and young adults. She's now doing a post grad in occupational therapy.

I think her work experience really helped her find her vocation - but I realise she landed lucky with her placement. When I worked in an IT company we'd take kids from the local school but they really only shifted boxes around, when I think they expected to be network engineers by day 5.

DianneB

My dd and her year group have just finished two weeks work experience and they all loved it. The area's they worked in were many and varied and placements were chosen by the students themselves, my dd worked at a stables she volunteers in already, she worked really hard and had a wonderful time, reinforcing her wish to work there when she leaves school. Another girl worked in a pharmacy I use, she was brilliant, the staff loved having her there and she didn't want to leave at the end of the day never mind the end of the fortnight!! It just depends on the students and the placements, they now have two weeks left at school and they are finding it a bit dull!!!

pigpen

Mine was a complete and utter waste of time.

DS1 found his enjoyable but really boring.. he was so unimpressed I can't even remember what he did.. oh.. I recall.. he went to a nautical school which had close ties with all the armed forces and he did his with the army and hated it.. one major bonus.. it put him off joining any of the cannon fodder troupes! So I was very pleased.

DD1 did hers at a local primary school and absolutely loved it.. she is now seriously considering teaching as a career.

On the whole I think it is a complete waste of time and resources and effort.

Savvy_Sue

I think DS1 had the best time, because we arranged for him to go and work with a friend in France who was running a Cyber Cafe. It couldn't be an 'official' placement because it was abroad, but because we weren't told that early enough (I asked!) the staff member responsible said to me "I couldn't possibly advise you to take your son out of school for a week, but if he happened to be taking a family holiday that week and came back with his booklet filled in I would happily sign it off!"

Because there were very few other staff, he got to have a go at everything and it was a very 'grownup' experience, including flying on his own!

By the time DS2 came to do w/e, our friend had closed the Cyber Cafe, so he ended up in a computer recycling project which did involve a lot of moving boxes around. But I didn't really get to talk to him about it much because I was in hospital that week, and he was at the 'grunting' stage. I think he'd have been happier with a screwdriver and a soldering iron to hand.

DS3 wanted to work in a cricket bat factory, but funnily enough there were too many H&S issues for that, and after a bit of a struggle to find anything he'd consider he went to the regional office of a trade union. I was surprised by how much he enjoyed it: yes, he spent some time stuffing envelopes for a mailing, but he was also allowed out on a recruiting drive, and came back demanding to know which union we were in, and why not!

But mine only ever had a week, which I don't think is really long enough.

We've had students doing w/e at work, and we make sure they get a variety of jobs. I think they've all enjoyed it - several of them have come back for more in their summer holidays!

paulwf

At the supermarket I used to work at they took work experience students in pairs. They weren't introduced to anyone or really given any coaching or guidance. They were just left to stack shelves on their own for a week. A complete and utter waste of time, about the only useful thing was it probably made them decide not to leave school at 16

Before that at the shop I used to run we took in work experience students but it was difficult to teach them anything useful in a week and most didn't want to learn anyway so we stopped taking them.

It's a good idea in theory but haven't seen it work in practice.