To take DS on holiday during work experience week

[Flufty191]

DS is year 10. We live in a small town. He's due to do work experience next summer. He/we have contacted every company in the local area and have either had no response, been told they don't offer work experience or the work experience places are already taken.

His options now are a charity shop or the school canteen (the canteen is the schools only help if you're unable to secure your child a place somewhere).

He's already doing voluntary work for his DofE.

Would I be unreasonable to book a family holiday abroad for a week instead?

Yanbu-book it
Yabu-he should do the work experience.

Holiday; unless anything has drastically changed from when I did mine, it’s the biggest waste of time!

It's got worse if anything! At least my school helped you find a decent placement even if it wasn't in a field you were particularly interested in.

We were thinking of asking companies in the neighbouring larger towns but we couldn't get him there and back with our own work commitments and lack of public transport.

Could you maybe encourage your child to plan and book the holiday OP, obviously with your approval and final say? This at least would be a learning opportunity. You could get him to act as a holiday rep as it were, getting him to look into the things you could do, while you were away, costing them, arranging transport, that sort of idea. If you're planning on going abroad, get him to choose something that he thinks you as a family would like, ie, not just what HE would like, and get him to justify why he's chosen it. Tell him you expect him to treat you like strangers, ie, asking lots of questions about what you want from a holiday. Look at flight times, make plans of how to get to and from the airport at both ends. Just a thought, but at least it would give him some experience, if he were to have to make phone calls to find out information, that would be good for his confidence of dealing with people, or if not that, he could go forward to check in at the hotel, asking any necessary questions, look at booking travel insurance, etc.

Go on holiday.
BUT if any of the "place already taken" employers are of particular interest to DS, see if they will take him for a week over the summer.

Go on holiday, try not to come back with a tan.

Holiday!! They won’t be missing out on ‘school work’.

Does he have something he’s particularly interested in doing? I had quite a long journey to my work experience, back in the day, at a hospital. It was brilliant for me as I really thought I wanted to be a Dr, and had the grades too, but I hated it! Saved me years of study in a direction that I just wouldn’t have enjoyed.
I also always had summer jobs doing office work etc which also showed me the things I didn’t want to do. Work experience is useful for that too.
Then I did a 2 week placement one summer in the law office of the local council and I absolutely loved every second and that’s what I ended up doing (although not for local council).

100% holiday. Get him to chat to a water sports instructor or something while you’re there if you feel guilty / need to write something in a form.

I’m never normally one for missing school, but work experience like this is ridiculous.

If you choose to take him on holiday, he should arrange a week's work experience during the summer holidays. Very useful info for UCAS applications.

One company has offered him a week in the summer holidays instead.

I like the idea of him being the tour guide. I wouldn’t waste a week with him in the canteen.

I find it strange it has to be arranged so early. My husband has been asked at his work to accommodate a work experience but it's just so far away no one wants to think about it yet. So you may well have more luck trying closer to the time.

However I would choose holiday. I already had a part time job by that summer so had plenty of 'work ethic'. My work experience at a horribly run dog kennel didn't influence my career in marketing... at my school everyone pretty much went and worked where their parents/aunties worked.

If you take him abroad what lesson are you teaching your son?

Out of interest, why is the canteen bad? Could be useful…

I don't see why working at a charity shop for a week would be a waste of time. Sounds like an excellent placement.

Will a holiday work around your work commitments?

I don't know why people are being sneery about the canteen. It's a great idea - will get him food service experience so he'll be much more likely to be able to get a job at uni etc.

Any relatives he could stay with and could support his placement?

Have you asked friends / neighbours if any of them can help? One of my friends asked all her neighbours and got into a great company that way. Colleagues at my work have often had friends children come to us. If you go on holiday you are demonstrating to your son that he can opt out of required school activities when he chooses which isn’t the right attitude approaching GCSE time.

Has your son done retail work before? Or food service? Why are you being so dismissive of the two options available. I don't think you should take him out for a holiday if you can take annual leave for a holiday you can take annual leave to take him to work experience if those two options aren't good enough for you. You'll be sending your son a strong message that you think he's "better than that" if you let him opt out. Really poor life lesson.

Depends what sort of holiday it is, I suppose.

The DC could learn about travel, language(s), culture, and another country's approach to heritage management or water conservation or architecture or transport or parks & recreation.

Or not.

Retail and catering are really good go-tos if he's ever struggling to find a job in future, so I'm not sure why you're dismissing them out of hand?

I agree - or he might find he has a passion for it and makes a career out of them.

It actually makes me quite angry how you've dismissed those two options and decided a holiday is more important. Do you never eat out? Do you never use shops?

Go on holiday. Our school doesn’t even do work experience weeks. It hasn’t stopped my sons from getting work experience though, it just isn’t done in a block of a week.

What is he interested in? My teenagers are involved in significant volunteer commitments which get them plenty of opportunity to develop work related skills.