Work experience for school children - advice needed

carlislelass

Eldest did one in a cafe...sorted himself, next year was done by the school and was bored stiff. Youngest was done by the school at a care home...uniform needed

SailorSam

My niece got herself a job answering the phones when i was on the Cabs, and she learnt how to work the radio so got extra work when one of the Operators was off.
Op i'd ask in any of the small shops you go in.

Person_one

I don't really understand this, the summer after year 11 was when me and most of my peers got our first actual paid jobs. Does that not happen anymore?

newgirly

It's organised work experience, I did it at school and I am 41 so it's not new

.Gigolo_Aunt

newgirly wrote: »

It's organised work experience, I did it at school and I am 41 so it's not new

They had it at school in the 1980s, but it was organised by the school. Leaving it to the parents puts children whose parents are not well connected (or simply not very clued-up) at a disadvantage.

missbiggles1

.Gigolo_Aunt wrote: »

They had it at school in the 1980s, but it was organised by the school. Leaving it to the parents puts children whose parents are not well connected (or simply not very clued-up) at a disadvantage.

Which is one of the reasons that students of 16 should be doing most of the spade work for themselves.

KateBob

My daughter brought home a letter at the beginning of year 10, stating that she was expected to sort out a work experience placement for the end of the school year.
Details needed to be in to the school by November.

She hopes to eventually work in media production, something neither I nor her father know anything about.

Some research uncovered several firms in our city that might be suitable, she then prepared a short CV about herself and emailed it off along with a description of what see was interested in.

The responses ranged from "we don't provide work experience" through "I'll forward it to HR" up to "here's a name and phone number to contact here, we're interested"

In the end she went with a contact made through her gymnastics coach, but I was very proud of the effort she out into getting the work experience sorted.

Zinger549

When I did it you could either let the school arrange it or sort it out yourself. The ones set up by school were mostly shop or office work. I arranged mine myself at the local Renault dealership. I wanted to work in the service department and they said yes then told me no (health and safety). I spent the two weeks working in the parts department.

Person_one

newgirly wrote: »

It's organised work experience, I did it at school and I am 41 so it's not new

Well, so did I, but when I was about 14 and during term time, not in my free time when I was old enough to have actual paid work!

onomatopoeia99

Person_one wrote: »

Well, so did I, but when I was about 14 and during term time, not in my free time when I was old enough to have actual paid work!

I'm 47 and the school mandated work experience was after O levels, before the summer holiday. Nominally term time, but when there was no teaching going on for students of in that year - the exams were done, A level teaching started in Spetember, for those that were staying on.

No way the school would take a fortnight of actual teaching time out for kids to do filing / tea making etc! (after all, it is the END OF THE WORLD if a child has but a day off for a holiday in term time and it will blight there entire education and ruin their lives, the teaching unions and politicians tell us)

For those talking about insurance and local authority visits, times must have changed. I turned 16 while on the two weeks placement and that was working at an aerospace and defence contractor (not BAe) with a large factory floor with the usual lathes / mills / drills etc. So whatever insurance they had in place must have covered 15 year olds wandering around the factory floor, and the council weren't mentioned once by anyone ...