AIBU to think this is unfair and illegal?

[EverythingIsSoThrowback]

This is what I think is unfair:
My DD1 is currently on work experience, she said that all she's been doing is cleaning for the past 3 days. Isn't this unfair? She's not really learning anything.
Also, the 'illegal'part. She's working 5 hours without a break, she's 15, so shouldn't she work 4 hours before a break?
Should I complain?

Well it seemed to work out for the best - she did discuss the problems before hand with the college by the way, she didnt just pack it in. And by doing so she found a much more suitable placement elsewhere.

The vets did a u turn when she got there about what she would be doing.

Thankfully my WE place was lovely and I had no such problems. The way thins are now with health and safety I dont think it will be too long before WE stops tbh.

A fair few places refused me as I was over 16 but under 18.

Taking on people for work experience is a total PITA. They generate many many times more work than they actually deliver. I am sure lots of people woukd like WE at the vets.

Youth unemployment is at an all time high. I'd suggest she stops complaining, dazzles them with her hard work and pro activity and then politely asks if she can observe a surgery or whatever it is she thinks she should be doing.

Perhaps breaks are taken unofficially when time permits. Couldn't your daughter ask herself? After all it is work and not school, It does sound a bit militant for you to complain.

I agree 100% with hermioneweasley. I would imagine work experience in a vet's is extremely sought after. The employer is doing schools a favour not the other way round.

DSM, it's their half term though, so it's not in school time. Cleaning is not the same as being in the middle of an operation.
Can you be in the middle of an operation and leave, no?
(Not what has happened, but) Can you be in the middle of picking up 50 pieces of dog poo, and leave, and pick up the rest later? Yes, extremely easily, and it'd make no difference.
ThePinkOcelot, day 1 was saturday, closed on sunday, day 2 monday, day 3 tuesday. Day 4 will be today.
I'm not sure how cleaning is benefiting anyone, other than the vets.

She asked to observe an injection, and to see how they did blood test results, and was told no on both times. She said she is mostly closed off from everyone else, so it's hard for her to see what's going on.

Sounds like a complete waste of time. She's going to learn nothing on her own cleaning shit up. If she's asked to do stuff and they said no then clearly they have no intention of letting her do anything.

And no I don't think she should be grateful for being left on her own all day , and thrown a tit bit of feeding a horse just to break up the day.

WE is only a pain to the employer if they dont want to do it - and if they dont want to do it then they shouldnt be doing it.

It isnt that hard to keep someone entertained for a few days - even easier if you have a group of people to share the load. I love having a new victim trainee to explain my job to. I am an accountant so enjoy explaining what I am doing to someone (most people dont want to know!).

WE doesnt have to be exciting but it should give the young person an idea of what working in that industry/profession will entail.

I spent most of my work experience cleaning. I'd been sent to the city Museum - it was fascinating! We had to clean up the exhibits lent to schools for 2 days, clean up excavated pottery finds - and they'd recently excavated an ancient graveyard and we cleaned up the bones they found!
Maybe the job does involve loads of cleaning - I imagine a vet needs to be pretty sterile - and that's how all trainees and WE start.

But she's on her own from the sound of it most the day. That ruled out her being in the theatres or the drug store or consult room/reception. That leaves kennels and maybe the back room where the animals are brought to take bloods and do non surgical procedures. Just how dirty is this place if two or three areas take 7 hours a day to clean.

Why is she doing this work experience? Does she want to be a vet, a vet nurse or thinking more generally about working with animals?

I assume they will have vet students on placement too who will be doing the more interesting stuff

Because Vets surgeries need to be cleaned constantly. You don't just clean them once a week. They have to be cleaned after every operation and every procedure. I work on the rotisserie counter at a supermarket and we clean a lot because it can't just be left for hours at a time. You have to "clean on the go" which does make it seem constant at times, but it's part of the job.

I worked in a huge vets , that was cleaned "on the go" we all worked as a team together, and we still managed to show WE a bit more about the job. She's asked to do 2 things that would take a few mins and there's no reason why she couldn't have been allowed to observe the bloods at least even if H&s wouldn't allow observing an injection.

Read the ops posts , it really just sounds like she's being dumped with a shovel or a cloth and left to it with little interaction. You can't say that's WE.

My work experience was at a vet, although it was almost 20 years ago.

My day started with mucking out the cages, feeding and watering all the animals, maybe walking a couple of the more able pets, I'd occasionally help count out the medicines, and if I was lucky, I got to go with the vet to assist/ watch on the local farms. By then end of two years (I loved it so much I took it up as unpaid holiday work) I was allowed to assist with delivery of a calf on the local farm, assist in a minor capacity with operations, but it takes time and you have to show you're keen.

My original work experience was with one other girl who hated the cleaning and made a lot of noise about the fact, as a result she didn't get the opportunities I did.

I'm not saying your DD isn't keen, but you have to treat Work Experience a bit like a job interview and sell yourself