To not allow DC to go on work experience?

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One of my dc is 14 and is year 9. Because of the school set up (first year they have had year nines and only a handful of them) all year nine and year 10 are all being sent on work placement the same two weeks. DC will do work experience twice again due to school set up.

They have been told ten weeks before the work experience date about it (we did not think dc would do it until next year) and it is blooming nightmare as they are NOT helping them find anywhere or even helping with contacts, the kids have to do it themselves.

I have NO issue with this apart from the fact that from experience you have to apply months and months in advance for anywhere decent and dc knows what they want to be so I resent sending them somewhere irrelevant when dc is struggling academically in some core areas at the moment due to endless supply teachers in a couple of core subjects and some sen.

Soo is it a right of passage to be sent somewhere crap and miss two weeks of school or should I stand my ground and help her find somewhere proper for next year?

My father refused to let me do it, saying he didn't see the benefit in me being someone's dogsbody for a fortnight when I should be in school - I think it was optional anyway though and lessons continued as usual fir those who didn't go. I reckon I've got a better job than most of them now.

DS1's have stopped doing it for the first time this year, apparently recognising that they're there to get dc through their (new, more difficult) GCSEs not to provide free labour to local businesses

YANBU not to want them to do WE two years in a row for the school's convenience.

I do not get the 'too young' comments.

"It was the age when many, if not most, young people left school and entered the workplace for real, not that long ago." Exactly! My parents left school and went into full time work at 14!

I had 2 part time jobs at 13 plus did babysitting (I'm 44) my dd has frequently said she'd have loved to have done similar but it's no longer allowed, I understand not allowing children to be exploited but I really don't see 8 hours a week as exploitation! I still did well at school and had time to see friends and take part in hobbies (and had the money to do them!)

One of the issues is that now all those 18-25 year olds that are either at university or just finished also want work placements or 'internships' as they prefer to call them, and employers are getting fed up of being approached, I think. If you can get an unpaid 22year old for six months, then having 13/14 year olds for a week at a time is going to seem like a lot of hassle. I don't agree with unpaid internships by the way.

Do schools still do this? Ours doesn't, thank goodness. Schools all over the rest of Europe don't either, and their kids manage to get jobs. I think it's a waste of time.

Work experience is a really useful thing. It can help children decide where their future lies, give an idea of what they really don't want to do (so can work a bit harder for grades) and teach about reality of working life - costs, travel, lonely lunch breaks, standing all day etc. I think it's a parent's responsibility to ensure children use opportunity wisely and to assist in securing placements. Teachers wouldn't find them Saturday jobs, after all.
Mine loved their work experience and five have gone on to related fields. In no particular order they did - an undertakers, harbourmaster, an acute hospital end of life care team, a nursery school, a GP practice, a large pharmaceutical company, an RAF base learning to fly, Desigual HQ in Barcelona, a hotel reception, Rolls Royce. Must have been some others but can't remember them all.

DD16 did hers age 15 with a TA in a primary school - she wants to teach English abroad, so felt it was mildly relevant.

DD14 is going to do hers in a shop since she eventually wants to work in pharmacy (14 year old - drugs - pharmacy? responsibility? noooooooooo chance) and thinks shop work will be what she will need experience for when she goes to uni...

stacking shelves, coffee shop/cafe, hotel chamber maid - all are jobs the kids go for part time at uni, may as well get some experience and get ahead of the field.

I forgot teaching in Oman for a fortnight and the British Council.

Trouble is here that all the schools do work experience the same week - there are 2000+ teenagers all going for the same placements.

Hi first time I've joined a discussion but felt I had something to add.I also read the OP and skipped to the end so apologies if I am repeating anything already said.
I work in a volunteering office for a city trust that includes libraries,sports,museums and a theatre. We regularly get requests for work experience and only in exceptional circumstances can we ever offer a placement.We do tell the local school and colleges that we can't do block placements but just this week we have had 3 all for the same thing.The main reason we can't offer placements is that we don't have the staffing capacity,as an example none of our libraries are open full time so we couldn't take a student for a week as we aren't even open that amount of time. Sports is often popular but again we have a small 2 person team who deliver some specialised sports activities,now imagine if we took a work experience person for all the time that we get requests they would have someone new for one week every week for several months.We also have to take in to account safeguarding especially with under 16's.

So I can understand the Op's demoralisation.
if the young person has written an inquiry themselves,has tailored it to our organisation and their passion or enthusiasm shines through and they can be flexible then we do try our best but we normally suggest that they volunteer little and often.Once a week for an hour helping with a sports club is much easier to accommodate.

It's tough...people saying 'take them to your office' that's fine unless (like me) you're in a regulated industry where WE is not allowed. And three sets of two weeks seems a little over the top. I do agree that rubbish jobs can be very motivating but that's a bit of a red herring if there isn't anywhere that will take a year 9.

Local wildlife trust, conservation charity or council ranger service- if he likes the outdoors? We take Y9s where I work as long as they can get to/from the office/depot unaided.

My comments about age were actually from the point of view of someone who has WE students pretty much every year (as a school, we tend to get students who don't manage to get anything else sorted).

A 15 or 16 year old is just about old enough to pass as 'adult' with primary school children - and tghus to be vaguely useful in terms of an additional pair of hands and eyes, doing individual readers, sitting with a table during a lesson etc etc. A 13-14 year old is too obviously too close in age to upper primary pupils, and it would be hard both for the pupils to treat them as 'an adult' and for teachers to find them something productive to do.

Yes, 2 generations ago 14 year olds would be entering the workplace - but they would enter a workplace with their peers, and before the concept of 'teenagers' had really been invented. A lone 13-14 year old doing WE in a workplace nowadays would have very few peers or near peers in that workplace.

It does seem more difficult now than when I did mine.

I work for a large Govt Department and am always being asked to take WE people. While I'll do it for people I know, I have to vouch for these people so I can't take any randoms that just write in.

Shouldn't be about who you know though. When I did it the school sorted it out and we were told where to go - I ended up at Barclays.

I work for a company that gives oodles of work experience placements- they have to be 16 years min- 14 is having a child on placement- not sure many will accept 14?

We've packed in doing work experience in our cluster of schools.

It got harder each year to place pupils, we'd often have moans from parents ("My child isn't going THERE to do THAT!" 'Oh? Why not? That's someone's full time job you're talking about!') and employers were struggling in the recession and were laying off staff so supervision was a problem. A shame, as DS got a lot out of his and it helped to guide his future uni path.

Part of my job is organising the work experience in my company. I always turn down enquiries from parents and teachers on behalf of students. I only ever take on students who get in touch themselves. Just in case anyone is trying to find WE on their DC's behalf, this may be why you're struggling.

Also, it really isn't 'free labour'. WE causes more work than it provides.

Exactly what you said FootstepsMerlot

You have little choice where we live, unless you know somebody in the area you want to work it's pretty useless too.
Is it opt out at your school OP, could you just not keep off school and do some extra work on the core subjects where dc is struggling.
I agree it's pretty pointless if they are struggling and need that time to work on school subjects.
Who needs to work at Sports Direct as a skivvy for nothing. It's bad enough for those who are grown up and on a zero hours contract.

My work experience at 15 was at HMRC. My sister's at a mental health hospital. Both of my brothers got theirs at a football club shadowing the office manager.

Work experience can be worthwhile if you take time to apply and plan properly for it. The skivvy jobs are usually handed out to the people who apply last minute.

" and before the concept of 'teenagers' had really been invented"

Er when do you think this was? 'Teenagers' as a concept has been around since the 50's.

My parents left school in the late 60's, in the 70's the school leaving age didn't rise to 16 till 1973! I remember people that babysat me leaving school as soon as they could and

And it being considered completely normal.

"My child isn't going THERE to do THAT!" 'Oh? Why not? That's someone's full time job you're talking about!

Oh god yes! I have several friends now as I get older who train young employees. They're finding an increasing number don't want to do the basics, that it's beneath them! The worst ones my friends get calls from their mothers arguing why they can't do X y z - these are the mothers of people in their mid 20's!!