...to think there is a flaw in the system for school work experience placements?

At 14 it’s not precise work experience that’s needed though. For a vet or anyone really. This is a time to just go and see how work differs from school. It makes little or no difference to careers or uni.

It's the council that do the vetting and insurance. Not school or the vets.

The change since then is that vets have been bought up by chains

I don’t know if there is more scope for an independent vet’s practice to take on work experience schoolchildren, but if you are lucky enough to have one of them nearby, it might be worth a try.

It's sad things have changed. I did my work experience at a vets back in the 90s. Loved it. Got to help look after the animals and sit in on lots of operations too.

I should have said "DD is 14"

I did two weeks work experience at a vets when I was 15 and I loved it. Mainly involved walking the dogs, cleaning kennels, assisting the vet and helping clear up theatres after surgeries. I saw operations and sadly some euthanasias but it was a fantastic experience.

However working as a midwife it's difficult to accommodate work experience. Pregnancy and birth is a personal time for a woman and not everyone wants to have someone there gawking at them. We do have work experience but they are over 16 and they have a very limited experience as they cannot be part of birth etc. I'd imagine other areas of medicine are the same. There are other options as of getting work experience such as St Johns cadets etc.

This is the entire problem with work experience now.
When I did it school provided a list of vacancies you then applied and interviewed for.
The whole source it yourself using your parents networks just leaves hundreds of teenagers going to work with their parents and not experiencing any like a realistic working environment.

Also is 14 and it will be for 5 days.

What's the point going to your parents job? It won't be a real working environment if you're with them or people they know.

They can once they are in college and uni.

Dd14 was turned down by all the vets but one. She is doing her work experience at a dog kennels and cattery.

Also this work experience doesn't have to be career related. Mine was at Boots.

@FieldInWhichFucksAreGrownIsBarren I love your username.

My son who is now 13 got a placement through local NHS trust summer of Y12 which was great - 3 days in hospital watching surgery, visiting wards, getting really involved and opportunity to talk to doctors about application to uni and careers. Limited places though (20 for our whole NHS trust) so look into it now and they need to be a realistic candidate predicted A/A*. He also did 3 days via a personal contact with SALT/OT/Physio. He did a biomedical engineering taster week at Southampton University through the Smallpeice Trust summer of Y11 and a Casualty Care course through Atlantic Pacific charity summer of Y12. Plus first aid qualification through air cadets (and lots of leadership/teaching stuff) and a job as a lifeguard which ticks the first aid/responsible/public facing boxes.

The standard thing for aspiring medics who cannot get closely related work experience is to join the St John's Ambulance cadets.

Also see if there's anything going in care homes, PHAB clubs and the like

Hi. My son is 3rd year vet med. As others have said pre 16 is tricky and even 16-18 is hard.

Couple of suggestions though, stables are generally quite welcoming of youngsters. Fisheries are a bit left field, but somewhere else to try. My son at 15 did a couple of days at a donkey sanctuary when we were on holiday abroad - plenty of dog/cat/dog ket rescues in holiday places.

Broadly though, at this age I’d book any old work experience where she might need to use people skills - they get tested on this later for university entry MMEs.

In the meantime keep her interests up. Edinburgh (Edivet) did have some good free video mini tutorials/courses. I think they were certificated too. And a couple of other places too - may be RCVS?

Similar situation with Y10 DD who is 15. Wants a career in medicine but can't get any work experience in that sector below Uni age so she has tried other avenues, vets, pharmacies, dentists. Those that have responded it's been negative so basically she'll end up doing 2 weeks with her Dad which, whilst it gives her an insight into the workplace, is completely irrelevant and a missed opportunity.

It's easy if your parent or parent's friend works in that profession I'm afraid.
Conversely, DS's dad and I work in professions not allowed to have under 16s/17s for work experience as do my friends so I'm struggling to source a placement for him as we don't have the right contacts in other jobs

It's not just animal and health - i work in a commercial office and we are not allowed to have anyone under 16 on the premises. So you can't even take your own child in for work experience. We were told it's down to insurance. We also don't offer unpaid work experience and can only take people into paid intern roles.

My daughter had had to sort hers recently.
Her old primary school are having her back but they don’t generally give work experience places to ex pupils.
It just so happens that I am a teacher and the new head there is an ex colleague of mine.
It is a more realistic work experience than coming with me.
She doesn’t want to be a teacher but school say use your parents networks and as we both work in schools as do both my brothers we don’t have much of a network other than schools.

@McGingery What dc does at 14 won’t matter that much. What they do with caring for animals a bit later will matter. Most vet courses expect a hands on interest but check out what the unis say. Then do more than the minimum.

Pets at home or somewhere like that maybe?

I’ve always detested school work experience - it’s pointless and gives you no clue what work is actually like.

It's incredibly difficult to get work experience. My place of work doesn't even allow under 18s to visit anymore...

I work in a vet surgery. We definitely take secondary school students for work experience. So, it may be their particular insurance doesn't cover them or they just aren't that keen.
But just so you know it's not all vets.

Work experience is a nonsense. I come from a country that doesn't do it at all and people get jobs just fine. It adds nothing, it's just annoying.

I agree with the inaccessibility of work experience.

DS was very fortunate - his school decided to do WE at the beginning of Y11, and he'd already had his 16th birthday, which made it easier.

My work only does targeted WE with 2 particular schools, and will no entertain "word of mouth" WE.

I did my work experience at a vets in year 10 in the 90s. I vividly remember the smell of the place, and observing an operation. By the end of a week I no longer wanted to be a vet!

The insurance side of things is really limiting now - DD did work experience in year 10 and we all found it hard to find anywhere willing to take 14 year olds.

If you work in a hospital massive salad you must realise how inappropriate it would be for a child to shadow any kind of medical staff. What work experience did you do in a hospital?
I'm interested as we found it impossible to get anything for my child who is now a doctor. The medical school application forms like you to have done some kind of related work experience and we went with holiday clubs for disabled children and care home work. He was over 16 then.