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.

Just to say that my son's school and lots of others locally do not do work experience. Lots of companies cannot have under 18s on the premises due to insurance.

In their old primary school they do get the feeder school secondary children but they rarely have an interest in teaching/education it is chosen because it is familiar and they can walk to it. They end up being babysat as they cannot be alone with any children so a TA has to stick to them. It is a complete waste of time.

Do either your or your DH’s workplaces offer work experience? Any friends who commute to the larger town?

I’d find the idea of booking a holiday to be something I probably couldn’t/wouldn’t do but if he’s already volunteering and he’s been offered a placement in the summer holidays then from that POV it’s fine.

I sometimes have work experience in. At 18+ they’re useful (I.e self-motivated students home from uni), at 16 it’s (sorry!) more work for me than anything else. Plus the paperwork for schools is extremely annoying. I actually think catering or retail you’d get more out of at 16 than the office-based ‘career’ work experience they want from me. At least that type of work experience is likely to immediately pay off if they want a summer or part time job. I really don’t feel they get to learn anything useful in a week in the office with us at 16.

It hasn't got to be sorted for another half term so I'd probably hold off doing anything @flufty191

Is there anything where you or DH work?

Is there anywhere walking distance to where you and DH work?

What are the public transport links from either home or either of your places of work?

Not always. I did voluntary work in a charity shop as an adult and they kept me in the back the whole time steaming clothes.

OP, take him on holiday. If you want to do the placement in the summer then fine, but the fact that he’s already doing voluntary work is great.

Many work experience weeks are useless because the work environment realistically doesn’t allow the pupil to actually do any work.

UCAS sure as shit won’t give a toss about someone ‘working’ for a week like 3 years ago.

Enjoy the holiday!

The OP's update shows her son has volunteered for his DoE in a cafe and in a charity shop so he has already done those things.

That doesn't rule out doing them 'again', albeit in a different location.
Work often involves doing things over and over too.

Also word of warning @Flufty191 I’ve just remembered at our school the kids who didn’t set up or agree to a work experience placement had to attend school all week, sitting in on lessons from the year below (supposedly “revising”). It was termtime not a holiday.

Totally disagree with this. It's not really about being able to write your Y10 work experience placement on your CV; it's about learning soft skills and experiencing the real world of work, regardless of how entry level it is. It also might help him get a job whilst studying such as bar or retail work, which probably over time would be something impressive on a CV alongside a good degree.

The complaint of many employers today is that many young people want all the perks with none of the hard yards. And here we have people seriously arguing that working in a food service outlet or a shop is a waste of time for a 15 year old. This thread is an eye opener.

Unless this boy is the luckiest kid in the world and walks straight into his dream job at 18/21 and stays there until retirement, he's going to experience doing a job he doesn't want to. We all have! There's no reason it needs to be this specific week under the school work experience scheme.

You're right though that I don't understand working in food preparation/service as I haven't ever done it. The OP's son has though, in a National Trust cafe. Perhaps I ought get some work experience? Do you know what it's like to work in every single industry? Perhaps you should get some work experience as well! We could setup a Mumsnet work experience program.

And? He can do them again.

That's how jobs work. Try things in different settings.

It’s not just the actual week though is it. It’s learning how to find a placement, how to be resilient and not give up. There’s brilliant stats around the importance of Wexp (in 2023, a quarter of graduate jobs at the top graduate recruiters went to students who had done Wexp at the firm : https://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2023/graduate_market/GMReport23.pdf). Practising the skill of finding and arranging a placement prepares them for the competition at the next stage, when it really does matter.

same is true of apprenticeships. Lots of our students are offered apprenticeships off the back of their Wexp.

so yes, it might make no difference, you taking him on holiday instead. But you’ll never know what he may have missed out on.

Well that's how it makes me feel. You're so dismissive of those options you'd rather he went on holiday. Everyone else is doing work experience. The school even provide a backup option for those who can't find anything. But you've decided your child is special and should be able to opt out just becuase they've already worked in a shop and a cafe. You're looking down your nose at those options.

There's no reason it needs to be this specific week under the school work experience scheme.

There is also no good reason why he shouldn't.

You're right though that I don't understand working in food preparation/service as I haven't ever done it. The OP's son has though, in a National Trust cafe. Perhaps I ought get some work experience? Do you know what it's like to work in every single industry? Perhaps you should get some work experience as well! We could setup a Mumsnet work experience program.

At no point have I even suggested that you 'get some work experience' or that 'I know what it's like to work in every single industry', but I do happen to have some experience in the food prep/service, so I offered that experience. I also have experience in other areas, due to work, but I haven't offered that because we are not speaking about that area. If we were speaking about the area you work in then I hope you would offer that! Working in a coffee shop/cafe (so open to the public) is a slightly different set up than a canteen (so school, work etc, not open to the general public in the same way), despite there obviously being common themes. Even if it is quite similar, that isn't reason to go on holiday instead imho!

In the OP's defence, I think she's just got her eye on a cheap holiday rather than sneering at everyone who works in retail/service industry. I think it's more about holiday prices than work experience.

I disagree. I think it's both. If her son had work experience that she thought was somehow worthy then she wouldn't be considering it.

You might be right, but it is reading as a bit of both.
Of course the idea of a holiday is appealing, who wouldn't want to go away for a wee break and pretend it's for their child's benefit?

I accept we've got different opinions on this and both are valid. I just don't think it's quite the disaster you're making it out to be. This week is not going to make a difference to his life either way. Everything he can learn this week he can, and will, learn in another week. It doesn't matter.

Transferrable skills!!! There is plenty to be learned about how to work in any work environment.

We run a small pizzeria and employ students during the summer. It is absolutely astonishing how many 18 year olds have never had any kind of work experience/minimal Saturday job and have absolutely zero idea how to do anything these days.

Being able to greet customers politely, "doling out chips" into a bowl without dropping them everywhere, changing a rubbish bag without being asked, noticing that something needs clearing and doing it efficiently are all useful life skills that it won't hurt him to learn.

I never did work experience and I've managed to cope

It's hardly essential is it?

You could say that about any other week at school though.

We've clearly got different opinions.
I am not 'making anything out to be' anything, simply stating the actual facts of the situation.
It does matter that he does what he's supposed to be doing just now.

Anyway OP. If your son can line up work experience he wants to do in the summer, and the school agree to it then fine go ahead. Otherwise YABU.

Get him to do the research, find all the bits you’d need for the holiday, plan the itinerary etc and count it as works experience for a travel agent?

Holiday but make him do some manual labour.

Students come back from work experience with a whole new level of maturity - your sone will be left behind if he doesn't do it