to ask for work experience tasks for 16 year old

[MeMyselfIcecream]

We have a work experience student coming in on Monday and need some tasks to keep him busy as we're a small team and need some projects he can get on with whilst we work (although obviously we will involve him as much as possible). Our main business is sales and marketing. Any ideas please for some things he can work on independently?

Filing, photocopying, answering the phone and taking messages?

It depends on what skills they have, and what non-business-critical tasks you have available!

When one of my children was doing work experience at an engineering company he spent time in every department being shown how they worked, and was asked to complete a brief project summarising everything, and present it to the sales dept at the end of his two weeks. It was brilliant for him.

I'd have some basic admin things for him to do (stamps on envelopes, answering the phone and directing calls etc) and I'd also try to get him to shadow some of your colleagues for 1/2 a day each. That way there is stuff for him to do which pass the time and also he is getting to see different aspects of your business.

I also think it's worth asking him what he hopes to get out of the experience. Is he just there to see how jobs are, is he particularly interested in your field or just getting to know how workplaces operate. You can then tailor some time to his needs and expectations.

You might be really surprised at just how helpful a young fresh set of eyes can be to certain areas of work, he could end up being a real asset for that week. But if not, he should become an excellent tea maker and a filing cabinet guru, just don't let him sit there bored.

The goal is to have them experience the role in as near to real life as possible a situation. Could you create a marketing job for him? Assign him a client within the team, he will then need to work with that client to get the project spec, scope out the requirements, use the software, make a pitch etc?

Is there any kind of research project he could do and present back at the end of his stint? We often get work experience people to do things like competitive reviews.

Wow thanks so much to everyone who's replied - some great ideas there! And please keep the ideas coming as we have a week to fill!

I used to get them to do some stuff that was helpful to me such as desk based research into potential clients etc.

I would also set them a marketing campaign brief. I would dedicate an hour each day to teach them the basics. One day we might have looked at press releases, writing blog posts, one day may have been social media, another might have been a brief look at events. I would explore with them what they could potentially do with each medium in relation to their campaign and get them to do some work towards it. At the end of the week I would get them to present their campaign ideas to a person of seniority (on PowerPoint with creatives and evaluation methods ). If they can see some of their proposals in action (such as tweets/press release etc.) it is nice, but even if that is not possible they have a nice theoretical portfolio of work to take away with them.

Filing, photocopying, answering the phone and taking messages?

I suspect in effect this is what many 16 year olds do on work experience, but the 16 year old doesn't really want experience of being an admin assistant, they want to know what it is like to work in marketing...

It would be nice to give them something to let them get a feel for it. (says the person who did work expereince in a bank, sealing envelopes, whilst her best friend went to watch autopsies)

Def some desktop research - new markets, new channels, audience insight, best practice examples, depending on what gaps you have currently.

2020 bookings - do you need to put together media plans from publishers, for example? Or renew sponsorships?

Updating and improving briefing forms, summary decks, shared Calendars templates etc

Ask him to take a 2019 campaign and amend it in some way - add new channels, change the target audience or increase the budget - what would he suggest?

And maybe a day out with a sales rep

You may want to find out ahead of time what the sixteen-year-olds skill-set is . Can vary widely . My DD you had a work with a spreadsheet film and edit videos and complete forms and resumes by the time she was 12.
By the time she was 16 my DD had done internships and volunteer jobs that involved putting together a database of bowling alleys across the United States for a music publishing company, helping the general public (including mentally ill, homeless, and non-English speakers) fill out forms to get free consultations from a lawyer, and putting together(shooting, editing and uploading) short videos for social media platforms. She would, however, have been pretty useless at putting stamps on envelopes or alphabetizing things (she is clumsy and dyslexic).

Sorry... Had worked extensively with spreadsheets and filmed and edited videos...

A lot of 16 yos are better at research, Excel, and social media marketing than older people so I would probably give him his own project. I work for a major bank and one of our most successful social media campaigns ever was created by a 16 yo work experience student in the UK.

^^ I was going to suggest getting fresh eyes on your social media presence/looking at adapting whatever campaigns you have going/coming up.

Desk top research, shadowing in meetings and taking notes, updating social media channels, doing some analysis on sales (year to date/year on year etc). You say you want him to work independently, but he'll be there to learn about your business, so don't leave him on his own too much. Definitely don't give him just filing and photocopying to do as that's just boring and he won't learn anything.

Our WE are assigned a team member and they basically shadow them. It's a bit pointless, as they can't have any access to laptops / intranet etc so can't really work independently. We try and get them into some interesting meetings and out client side as much as possible.

I've usually tried to give little research projects and rotate WE students round the company, but don't knock the photocopying-type jobs if managed right.

As a PP says, it can be a case of giving students meaningful activity while also shadowing someone. Locking them alone in the basement with the photocopier, on the other hand... not so much.

I am relieved to see all the suggestions that actually would engage a 16 year old rather than put them off for life! My son is doing work experience in a gym and so far they have had him cleaning 30 spin bikes and painting the reception - he’s training to be a fitness instructor and personal trainer and hope they have him doing something a bit more meaningful soon! He doesn’t mind and fair enough cleaning is part of running a gym but not impressed when I saw his paint splattered gym clothes!

A research project into different sales and marketing techniques and how your company could apply them?

Thank you all so much for the time and trouble you've taken to write some incredibly helpful replies - I appreciate every one of them. I think I could keep him busy for a month with all of these great ideas.