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

I'd focus on what you can do

List all animal based businesses in your area.

So shelters, groomers, pet hotels, farms/ city farms, parks with animals, petting zoos. Stables.

Worst case scenario pets at home and other pet shops (not ideal I know)

Also worth contacting local vets to see if she could do an admin type role.

One thing with vets is they have to do a lot of horrid work, putting animals down etc so at a young age finding adjacent experience rather than a vet placement might not be the worst thing.

Competitive courses like vet and medicine requiring relevant work experience is a real problem for kids who don't have parents/contacts working in these areas. What happens where I work (healthcare) is that the only kids who come on work experience are those with parents who can pull strings for them. I've done it too in all honesty, but it's not very fair.

I agree that it's too experience the world of work but if you want to be something like a vet or doctor then you need to be studying that as a degree subject which affects what you pick at A-level and possibly even GSCE e.g. separate sciences rather than combined. They're also very competitive courses to get into so you need to be really certain that's what you want to do, and experience on your uni application will always count in your favour. It's not really the same as picking subjects you enjoy / are good at, choosing a degree subject along the same lines and working out what you want to do when you graduate at the age of 20-21 as many people will do!

There is also no requirement to have a DBS to supervise work experience students but many workers don't want the responsibility/risk of being alone with a young person.

At that age she probably needs to aim a bit lower, dog groomers, pet shop or stables maybe. It's tricky at this age.

The workplaces are actually wrong but many of them don't realise or just use it as an excuse.

Employee liability insurance covers under 18's as standard as long as they are on an official work experience placement organised by the school. They are however of course free to set their own blanket rule but they are incorrect about the insurance aspect.

we don't take work experience students because the building sites we work on don't allow under 16's due to the dangers but it's nothing to do with insurance.

Most people go to their parents work. There's nothing meaningful to gain out of this.

That's not true. Experience of the work place ( any workplace) can offer opportunities to gain general employability skills and an insight into the world of work.

DD also volunteers at a Barnados charity shop, they take people from 14 as normal staff you just have sign consent forms and she's not allowed to use the till unsupervised. They could go something like that instead.

Work experience is for work skills, applying, interviewing, rocking up on time and in appropriate clothing. It has very little to do with helping them get an insight into their future job. They have to explore that separately.

I completely agree it's pointless. DC school does this at the start of year 11. The kids will be 15. Most people go to their parents work. There's nothing meaningful to gain out of this.

It's incredibly difficult to get any work experience at all for the year 10, 15 year old, time when most schools do it.

Compared to decades ago, the insurance rules and other requirements mean that very few companies will do it.

At some point the school work experience week will have to stop because no one will be able to do it

I did my work experience at a Vets 15 years ago and honestly I spent a lot of it sitting around bored stiff for 2 weeks. I couldn't really help with cleaning as it was always spotless and the most exciting task was arranging tins of dog food one of the days. I was able to watch a couple of procedures which was interesting but I wasn't really allowed to help look after the poorly animals or anything. I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if insurance wasn't a hurdle there is always going to be a limit to what a 14 year old can actually do at a Vets. It wasn't a particularly valuable experience from me, my friends that did theirs at Tesco seemed to enjoy theirs much more to be honest.

A stables could possibly be an option? Or even a local pet shop could be good.

Perhaps when she's 16 she might be able to volunteer at a local animal shelter or similar.

You can't have a 14 year old shadowing vets, nurses and doctors. They're far too specialised to have a child in the way when life threatening things might be happening.

The need to have a safeguarding policy is a further administrative issue, as well as the need to extend insurance.

A sports club I know was looking to change its joining age from 18 to 16. The increase in insurance was eye watering.

A week of work experience when you’re 14 or so is not going to be career defining. Anything that shows you can turn up on time, act appropriately in a work environment, be polite and speak clearly will still be a useful building block

DD is doing her work experience at a Nuclear Powerplant, she just emailed in and I filled in the consent forms.

I think most STEM workplaces offer work experience, we're very keen on STEM outreach and there's STEM ambassador programmes when we send folk into schools etc. At my work we have days for primary age kids to visit as well as older kids wanting to do work experience. All get to do some experiments and have great fun.

I used to work for a company that took work experience students for a week, probably about 25 - 30 years ago. We were happy to do it.

Then the rules tightened up and because these were "children" anyone directly supervising them had to have a CRB or a DBS as it is now.

I didn't have a CRB at that point and neither did most of my colleagues. Most weren't very keen to get one done. There were other bits of red tape too, and just became too much of a faff.

I don't know what requirements there are for the placement provider, but if it's a faff, most companies won't want to get involved, or force people to have a DBS, if that is still the requirement.

But she can get work experience there when she's older. Medical or veterinary services are never going to allow 14 year old work experiences but she might be able to go to a Kennels or Cattery. They may well be happy with her volunteering outside the structured WE programme on a Saturday but she'll be cleaning rather than assisting.

She can do work experience in all sorts of places, Aviva do a great programme she could do it with an animal insurer and see it from that PoV. Or a wildlife trust and conservation placements.

DD is doing her work experience at a Nuclear Powerplant, she just emailed in and I filled in the consent forms.

It must be tricky if your kid wants to be a submariner or a gameshow host or somesuch.

I shadowed a pathologist and his team for a week for my first work experience (back in the day). It was amazing (I didn't do anything just observed) although one think I learnt is that I didn't want to do lab work or pathology.

Surely it's not just about experience of a particular job, but experience of being in a workplace? It would be ideal if the work experience could be in the same field the student wants to enter, but it doesn't mean there's no value in it if it isn't.

Bear in mind also that your ideal career when you're mid-teens might not be the same thing you want to do when you're old enough to start work; or it might not work out for you if there are no jobs available or you miss the relevant qualifications.

Vets can take them. It’s just most don’t want to. We have enough people wanting to visit. Including student vets, older children ready to go to university but needing placement to get on to a vet degree. European qualified vets needing hours to get their rcvs registration to name a few.
Unfortunately work experience children are usually fairly useless. They can’t really do anything. Most barely speak and seem highly disinterested which puts people off. My practice does take them. But I can see why most don’t

Work experience in Healthcare or veterinary fields is notoriously difficult to get while at school. Lots of kids are in the same position, even once they are slightly older.

My daughter who is now at uni on a healthcare related course ended up doing her work experience at a primary school. Waste of time really but it was a good experience and useful as life experience.

However, she did volunteer at the local dementia charity and at a care home in her own time which was very rewarding and informative. Looked great on her UCAS form too and she wrote her EPQ on dementia in 6th form, getting an A*.

There are ways of getting good, related experience other than at a surgery and other than in the week school allocate to it. You just have to think outside the box a bit and be willing to put the legwork in.

Get her to apply to all the local animal charities, wildlife centres, shelters etc as a volunteer. Even a saturday job as a kennel maid or stable hand would be fantastic experience and will give her something really tangible to discuss at future interviews. It would show commitment over a period of time too.

Could you volunteer as a family for the cinnamon trust or guide dogs, maybe?

I did my work experience at Mothercare. It didn't in any way affect my life beyond making me realise working in retail is boring.

Yep, having the same at the moment for my son 15, who wants to be an engineer.

The NHS speaks out of both sides of its mouth at the same time with stuff like this. Constantly moaning they can't recruit, yet bending over backwards to avoid offering work experience. It's utter nonsense.

YANBU to think that expecting dc (or, in truth, their parents) to find someone to take a 14 yr old for we is ridiculous.

I also think the same at 16

YWBU (if that is what you are asking) to think that most companies / employers have the capacity to give U18s any useful and interesting we

the whole premise that all workforces can let U18s have access to their workplace for a week needs revisiting.