work experience for schoolchildren

stef240377

My daughter has just recently completed her week of work experience and we both have mixed reviews of how this has impacted on her choices/decisions in later life.

The school organised the placement after asking all Year 10's to complete a survey about which working sector they could see themselves in once they have left school. My daughter chose retail, i think in all honesty because she thought it would be an exciting position interacting (gossiping) to the general public. However in reality she was placed in a boutique style shop in our town centre with one other girl from her year. She was asked to go into the shop after being offered the placement to introduce herself so the Owner could be sure of suitability of the child they were being left with. This was a very rushed Hi, im XXX and can you make sure you get here for 9.30am please, see you in June, from the Owner.

On the first day the Owner was late by almost half an hour, i had just started dialling the school as she came round the school very laid back asking if we had been waiting long, proceeded to pile my daughter high with bags etc while she fought round her hand bag to find the keys to the gate and then the main door. She was not advised as to when she would finish or when her lunch break was, every day was hit and miss. The opening hours altered every day depending who were assigned to open up. On day 2 im guessing husband of owner was in charge and was a bit miffed that my daughter arrived at 10am - well thats when she were asked to turn up. My husband was in town at the time she had relayed to us that she would finish for that day to find shop all locked up and lights off - she was already at home as she had been told to go home at 4.30 instead of 5.30. The rest of the week was pretty much the same.

All week all she did was run to and from the Coop to fetch cans of pop, dusters, cleaning clothes and cleaning fluids and a trip to Mcdonalds to fetch lunch for the Owners husband. She didnt do anything practical in the shop, was only allowed to watch sales be put through the till and nothing of benefit at all. As it was Boutique style the prices reflected that for the clothing so there were very little custom during the week and she felt a spare part even though the other girl had not turned up for the week due to a stomach bug. She didnt even recieve a courtesy thank you at the end of the week so you can imagine this has left her feeling as though this is how your treated in a work environment. We have had to emphasise to her that she was just unlucky that time and another employer may have treated her differently. But since the experience she has gone to several places that are advertising for saturday staff to be told she isnt old enough ,(she will be 16 in Nov) after getting literature from the schools careers adviser and Connexions to state the opposite. As you can imagine all of this has left her feeling quite deflated.

Counting_Pennies_2

Vital.

I went on my first work experience to a nursery (was convinced by my mother I would make a good nursery nurse) I hated it.

I changed my mind and for the next work experience placement I worked for the post office on the phone line for one of their characters. Dealing with little children and their parents calling in for the complimentary pack they were sending out, and sending out videos commissioned by the post office to organisations. Found that much nicer working in an office and doing something a bit fun.

So yes I think it is very important to know what you want to do. Mine was very low brow, but many others work in vets, etc to get a feel whether they can cope with blood etc.

heretolearn_2

It really depends on the child and the placement. If it is taken seriously by both, and they get the chance to try out different things and really contribute, I think it is a very valuable experience. If the kid isn't interested, or the company just gets them stacking shelves/making tea, it's a total waste of time.

We've had two school and one university placements here so far and they've worked out very well, they've been very mature and capable and we were able to give them some solid projects to work on. One of the schoolgirls wants to work in our field so she benefited from talking to various people here about the best approach to training and the qualifications (there are several different routes in). The uni placement has used us as a reference in job applications. We benefited by getting some jobs done that we didn't otherwise have the resources to tackle.

kr15snw

I spent a week at a local primary school and my teacher was great, she gave me basic tasks that I was able to complete with the kids and I loved every minute. I also stayed late every night (my brother worked in another year group as a teacher so I used to get a ride with him) and helped her with paperwork and she showed me the marking and planning side of things.

It made me realise that I loved working with kids but teaching was not for me due to the paperwork load! I'd always seen it with my brother but actually doing it was another matter! Put me right off, lol.

We used to get work experience kids when I worked at the local ski centre and we always tried to give them the best possible experience. The first day was always a ski / snowboard test and then they would spend most of the week working with instructors. At the beginning of the week they would watch / assist us and by the end of the week we would try and get them to teach (with us stood next to them) a lesson on their own. They also did a shift on reception, in the bar and in the kit room. Most enjoyed it, but it was hard work!

And when I worked at the football club we also gave them a big selection of jobs. There was the fun day when they went to work with the kit man and be in the changing rooms with the players. But there was always the boring day on reception. Lol. But all in they had a good variety of jobs to see that a football club isn't just about 11 men on a pitch. Lol

I think they are worth doing, BUT understand that at 15/16 they might only get a rough idea of the working world. When I did my uni work experience that was specialised (I worked as a designer for 2 weeks and ended up getting a job from it!) and I think that is definately worth it!! But people need to make sure they pick something that interests them

delain

I did mine in a local solicitors, I mostly did filing!

Fuzzy_Duck

I hated every minute of my work experience. We weren't given any help, just left to get on with it. I applied to our local castle, as I really wanted to work there. I was really passionate about it, and even though I already had a lot of knowledge got out lots of books and videos to help me write a letter that would make me stand out. I received a disappointing one back saying they were not taking on work experience students this year, only to find they had in fact already taken someone from my school on. Just to rub it in the person chosen was well known as a bully, having broken a girl's arm a few month's earlier, and he certainly couldn't care less about his placement.

To this day I'm still bitter about it! I ended up working at a nursery where I was overworked and could have cried at the end of each day and how much my feet hurt and how awful some of the staff and parents had been to me. The kids were lovely and made me a big poster when I left, but that was the only positive thing. It taught me nothing, except the knowledge that I really didn't want to work in a nursery!

In fact, the majority of us ended up doing work experience in nurseries, because they were the only places that would take us on. I'd like to think work experience is better and more beneficial for kids now, and more employers are willing to take them on.

Mupette

DS did his at the end of May.

He loved it, it was with the local police hq.

He wasn't dumped on anyone and left to fend for himself, he was in a different department each day, being taken out and about to police stations doing I.T. fixing radios etc

Savvy_Sue

Sadly Fuzzy Duck, I think fewer and fewer employers want to jump through the necessary hoops and feel very constrained by the H&S aspects.

DS3 would have settled for the local cricket ground, if he couldn't make cricket bats, but they said they weren't able to do it any more because of H&S. They'd had students working with the groundsmen before, but Risk Assessments had ruled that out, and they didn't feel there was enough variety without that aspect.

Princess_Vix

I've done three lots of work experience and each one has been valuable to me but for different reasons.
I did two weeks in a nursery which I loved but realised I couldn't do it long term as I'd get very easily bored, did a few days in a hospital when I was looking at being a Speech and Language therapist and realised I couldn't do that either and then last year I did three weeks work experience at a High School in Liverpool which I absolutely loved, I didn't want to leave and was just constantly talking about it. The school was really good and actually let me plan and teach a lesson (this was mainly because I asked though, other people who were there didn't get the opportunity) I'm starting a PGCE in secondary english in September
In my experience if you go find a placement yourself you tend to do better than if you let the school assign you one. And avoid retail stores, when we used to have them at Comet they used to just end up spending the entire week moving stock and price checking all the items cos there was nothing else they could do, I haven't spoke to anyone who had a good experience in a retail environment, although as someone mentioned they are good if you aim to get part-time work out of it.
xxx

sueeve

As an ex form tutor of people on work experience I would say that the negatives have as much, or even more, use as the positives. I had pupils who completely changed direction , and how much more helpful to do that at 16 rather than when A levels are in the past and you discover in 1st year of uni, or having signed up, or been on training courses for the bank, or whatever, that it's not what you want to do. Better one week of boredom than a lifetime. As for the girls who stacked shelves. If they decided to get a bit more focussed in order to avoid that, that's brought them to a reality of what they need to do to avoid it. A reality which they can't be taught so effectively in the classroom.