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.

Work experience week was a bit of a rite of passage in school and we all liked sharing experiences when we got back, so I think it would be a shame to miss out on that. I would look further afield and budget for taxis if you can't rearrange work to do lifts. We live in London so it wouldn't be an issue but if we lived somewhere remote then I think you have to be prepared for things to not be on your doorstep and accept the extra cost of travelling.

There will be other school holidays periods to go on holiday so no need to go when it clashes with work experience week.

Will there be any followup from the school? I know when we had children doing it, they wrote daily notes in their binders and had a form or two that had to be filled in . If that's the case he'll either be in trouble or have to lie .

Have you tried any of the local primary schools or his old primary?Most of ours are happy to get children in for work experience.

I work in a pharmacy, we take a couple every year (from different schools so different dates).

Have found like a previous poster that what they get out of it depends on the person.

This year, one overhauled our prescriptions for collection storage system when asked if they could think of anything to make it easier now we were so busy.
The other couldn't dismantle boxes to put in the recycling.

I'd take him and tell them he's doing work experience as a flight attendant/pilot/holiday rep/waiter/lifeguard.

Work experience is valuable, but it doesn't need to be done in the week the school specify to have value. It'll be just as valuable in the school holidays.

I think you should make him try harder. It’s ages til the Christmas holidays so he still has about two months to find somewhere. You say you’ve tried all the businesses (not sure what you mean exactly) but what about things that aren’t businesses? I did mine with a charity that ran a local tourist attraction, it was mostly boring but I did get a summer job out of it which taught me a lot as well as obviously making some money. So have a think about charities - local food bank etc. There’s the council. Other schools/nurseries. Things just out of town like garden centres.

Aren't any of his friends doing it in the nearby bigger town? Could share lifts?

You say he’s done volunteering but that’s generally supposed to be to help others whereas this is supposed to be for his benefit to try out things he finds interesting or learn about other people/places/work.

Ds2 did work experience in a supermarket, the school got him a place. He enjoyed it, the staff were lovely and gave him cream cakes and a fiver when his week was up!

Surely the last option, if he really can't find anything, is to go to work with you or another member of your family.

I'm a teacher in a primary school and we take a lot of secondary school pupils who can't get placements, as an arrangement with our feeder secondary schools. Is this an option for him?

If he is hoping to get a part time job at any point, having a bit of experience, even if it is just something to talk about at interview, is very useful.

If I was hiring, I'd be quite impressed by someone who did a week in the school canteen but not impressed at all by someone who thought it was beneath him, only does work experience if it counts towards his DofE award or is at a lovely National Trust property, and is whisked away on holiday by a mummy who similarly thinks that the work experience is beneath him.

And how would it be received at school? Presumably if word gets out that you can book a holiday if you 'can't find a placement you want to do' then many will skip work experience next year.

The pupils on placement at our school also have to submit paperwork and we have to complete a sort of reference for them.

I'm not sure many people 'want' to stack shelves in a supermarket, though there may be some people it works for/suits. There is more to it than just putting things on the shelves though, there's methods you need to follow (stock rotation for example). Working as your nanny/housekeeper just isn't the same, and tbh I understand why the school weren't thrilled!

How about him learning how to use public transport to get to these bigger towns ?

Is there am in between option, like asking an outdoor activity centre if he can do work experience there and make a nice holiday out of it?

He isn't though!
Do you realise how much training each of those professions need to go through, and also the qualifications needed for at least two of them?
Actual work experience would be much better than 'playing' at something.

In that case I'd agree to that and book the holiday. Although it will be unauthorised so possibility of a fine.

It really is ages until Christmas so he's got plenty of time to find something.

I think he'll try harder if you tell him he'll be in the canteen if he can't find anything else, than he will if you tell him you'll whisk him away on holiday.

But if you can find something purposeful for a week in the holidays instead, I think that's worth a conversation with the school. I don't know where they will stand on it because they are responsible for their pupils' safety during school hours but not in the holidays. If he was injured doing school mandated work experience in the holidays that could be a serious issue for them.

This is the definition of pandering imo. He needs to try harder, it's all part of being independent and being able to stand on his own feet a bit.

Taking him on holiday because he thinks he is too good for the options provided by the school is ridiculous.

Kids have their whole lives to work. His work ethic isn’t going to be shaped by specifically doing work experience in that particular week. I doubt years from now just as he is being offered his dream job, the interviewer will shuffle the boys cv, glance down and say “hand on a minute, you missed work experience week. sorry you aren’t qualified to work here.”
Unless the OP has missed some vital information, the world won’t end if she takes her child on a holiday during the term and saves fortune. He can do work experience in something he is interested in during the summer.

Yeah, that comment may have been a little tongue in cheek!

He is doing work experience in the summer and as part of his DofE. That isn't less valuable because it didn't take place in the specific week the school put by for work experience.

It would also be of value to him to try to find something, and if not then do what the school sets up during this work experience week.

Don't kids have to arrange their own work experience anymore? I was very very lucky and got to go to a QCs chambers, it was the cousin of someone my grandad had done some work for. Had to get two buses , a train, a tube and a walk. For a very working class kid from a rough area it was incredible. It also gave me courage in my own academic ability because I could follow what he was telling me, find the info in the document bundles he needed etc, largely understood what was being discussed in meetings. It also meant when my careers advisor told me I wouldn't like Durham and wouldn't fit in (implying I wasn't posh enough), I went anyway and had a cracking time. I realised during my studies there were other areas of the CJ system I was more interested in, rather than solicitor/barrister, but I still work in the field more than 2 decades later.
It sounds like he's limiting himself to things that are local.

Sounds like with his volunteering he has more experience of work than the majority of his cohort.

Agree that it's pandering. He does seem to have a poor work ethic in that the work experience needs to suit him perfectly rather than adapting to the situation or going out of his way to seek an alternative. OPs holiday idea is reinforcing this idea that he doesn't have to do things he doesn't fancy or that are inconvenient (e.g the bigger town).

Would it? What specific great benefit is there in working in the school canteen for a week, over and above the work he has already done and continues to do? I'm sure the OP would appreciate the specifics to inform her decision.

If any child is likely to do a levels or go to university, then work experience is an utter waste of time.
A week in a shop when you are 15 years old isn't going to be taken into consideration by the time you are job hunting at 21 or 22 years old!

And I'm not sure much will be learnt either that can't be learnt from a part time job during teenage/student years

Perhaps if you are going straight from year 12 to work it may be a little more relevant

It's not just about doing (more) work experience at the time requested by the school, but also that he doesn't get to opt out and go on holiday because he isn't getting to do exactly what he likes as work experience.

Customer services
Suppliers
Ordering
Budgeting
Inventory
Health and safety compliance
Working effectively as a team
Communication
Picking up new skills quickly
Following instructions
Efficient processes to work at speed

Well, others might disagree, but there is definitely value in doing a stint in something that you might not really want to do - nobody knows how their life is going to pan out and many have to work in jobs, or do other things, they might not want to. This teaches how to cope. Also he will be getting more experience working with different people, following different instructions, taking pride in a job well done (even if you don't really want to do that job). You reply sounds a little like you don't really understand some of the demands of working in a food preparation/service establishment!

Edit- the poster directly above me, @TodayForTomorrow has helpfully individually listed these, and having worked in a coffee shop/canteen I agree with her list!