Work experience student - gift?!

[HiddenBooks]

Hello all,

We've currently got our first ever work experience student on a work placement with us for the week (he's 17, in Y12).

My only other experience of work experience was when I did it myself but that was nearly 30 years ago now!

He's done really well after starting the week absolutely petrified, but has had a good experience of a variety of work that we do, and has done some actual client work for us too.

I was wondering whether those of you that have had work experience students before yourself, or those that have had kids that did work experience, were given something at the end of the week?

I recall some of my fellow students being given some cash at the end of the week, but I definitely didn't get anything from mine.

I was thinking an Amazon gift card maybe for like £50?

What do you think?

I think if you've got budget available for it that would be a lovely thing to do, though not sure it's typically expected. But also - make sure you write up a reference or testimonial that he can use on applications in the future.

My son did work experience on yr 12/13 as part of his T level.

He was given an Amazon voucher as a thanks and really appreciated it.

He was also offered some PT work with them whilst he did the HNC the next year.

He now works for them. (Software development).

I think if you have the funds then it's definitely appreciated.

We have about 6 work experience students per year and we've never bought them a gift.

They nearly always give us (or their parents do!) a box of biscuits/tin of chocolates and a thank you card.

But no, we'd be permanently skint if we had to keep buying for them.

And then we get a lot of uni students too.

I would, if you think he's done a good job - it's a nice way to reinforce that they've done well! I had a wonderful work experience student at the end of last year. I wasn't allowed to give her money due to annoying reasons but I bought her a few gifts related to the work she'd been doing (creative subject) as a thank you. She was really pleased with the presents and I also offered to be her reference for any jobs she applied for (I gave a glowing reference because she was fab).

I got given a gift by my work experience student last year! I feel like I've made a terrible faux pas...

Thanks all. I think on balance you've confirmed my gut feeling that I'd like to give him something and that it won't be seen as inappropriate! A £50 Amazon voucher is definitely not going to break the bank, and we'll only do this once a year, so it's not an issue.

Thanks to @FamouslyFrothy for the testimonial idea - I'll definitely do that too.

He's been great, so we'll definitely be telling him to contact us next year if he decides this is a path he wants to go down. They do some great higher level apprenticeships in my line of work, and we'd be happy to take him on if we've got the capacity to.