AIBU to think there should be organised work experience placement schemes for school students

[DuaNinja]

Starting to feel very frustrated trying to help DD to find a year 12 work experience placement. She completed a week in year 10 but this year the school want them to find something relevant to future studies and not just to go to work with your parents or similar. It sounds so easy in theory but in practice why would a random company want the hassle of dealing with a work experience kid? It would be great if there was a proper system in place for this. I believe in Ireland students undertake work experience in year 11 and have a vocational / transition year between lower exams and senior exams (apologies if this is not correct, I only have a very vague understanding of this). In my day the school had links with local businesses and we signed up tor a placement and the company we went to had a plan in place for us. DD's school offers no practical help, just links to websites about how to write a CV. So far she has sent her CV and a targeted email to 9 companies and has not had a single response. Also, if she does get a response, we know nothing about the potential companies offering the place. I would feel happier if I knew she was going somewhere that had been vetted in some way. Not that she is going to get a placement at this rate.

@BoattoBolivia I think y10 is just too young these days for work experience, with safeguarding, insurance etc.

Finding placements is indeed hard in many areas- certainly true of mine. People saying their DC found it (by placing ads in a local paper? What is a local paper these days?) aren't really understanding that or that not everyone has connections with others who can take on young people for a spot of work experience

Schools 'persist' in trying to find slots (which are actually needed for teaching in year 12 from a class teacher pov, must say) because we are measured on Gatsby Benchmarks which are careers based targets. OFSTED would hold schools to task if they did not meet Gatsby.

Many schools used to have full scale year 10 or 12 work experience (sometimes year 11 ) organised by the school. Several things put paid to this :

-the change in curriculum and increased focus and measurement of exam outcomes got rid of anything 'fun' or 'extra' and a perception that work experience was one or two weeks of making tea. Staff had to go out on visits and there were complications over workload , use of time,car insurance,and petrol expenses.

-Funding - staff organising work experience were often non teaching staff whose jobs were cut

-Red tape and bureaucracy. Employers referring upthread to school red tape must know this is necessary ! But is is also why schools have stopped doing it. The red tape is lessened if they are self organised placements.

-Just as with parents and students, schools faced increasing numbers of employers who won't take under 16s/under 18s/ work experience.

-Academisation meant no LEA overall organisation of work experience weeks so schools selected clashing work experience weeks and places were gobbled up by some schools.

My DSs both really struggled with work experience because neither of their parents have any useful networks or connections (both teachers, no family, all friends also teachers!) and no ability to get anywhere that did have placements (no walking distance placements and no transport options). I would love for the school to just have put them somewhere but understand why they didn't have time or resources to do this. Ultimately , most schools will place a child in the school itself if they are unable to find something suitable.

Many moons ago, I’m 60, that’s exactly what happened . We did a fortnight work experience in sixth form. The school had a bank of places and you said what you wanted to do as a career and they matched you up. I had a fortnight working in a chemical lab. It was really hands on and I learnt loads.
i doubt schools have a career teacher now so it would be a lot to organise

I do thibk school should have contacts. They should encourage the students to contact places themselves. They should be fine with going to work for someone they know. And they should have some contacts in their back pocket.

I would presume anyone but the parents

My school had a long list of companies who had said yes to students (100+) and most students picked off that list. You were welcome to organise your own but this list meant everyone had an option. It was mainly stuff like nurseries or accountants or mechanics

I feel like there should be some sort of government campaign reminding employers to support work experience or some sort of incentivem

It's really hard to find anything now due to hybrid working and safeguarding. Plus some employers say insurance is an issue.

Year 12 was a bit easier to organise than year 10.

I work in an FE college where the majority of the courses in our department courses have a mandatory placement element, it's literally not possible to pass the course without completing the hours. We organise the placements for the 16-19 students, the 19+ students are expected to organise their own, although we will make introductions with settings we know are happy to take on students if the applicant is struggling to find one.

We also have a vocational programme for students who are not yet ready for a 'proper' course, where they will build on study skills, interpersonal skills and employability; towards the end of that they will go out and do some work experience. They are free to make their own arrangements if there is somewhere in particular they would like to go, but we do have partnerships with lots of businesses in the area who are willing to take our students for a couple of weeks.

It is possible to have a scheme organised, it's easier for our establishment than it would be for a school, because we already have working partnerships with a lot of employers from them contracting out staff training to us, and from the apprenticeship programmes that we run. That being said, it is still a complete nightmare to organise, and we do have to ask for a lot of documentation (we keep it to a minimum, but there is still paperwork which must be done).

So many of the students we have at the moment are so resistant to placement, regularly don't bother to go or let the setting know they're not going. 5 students from my main group of 15 have lost their placements so far due to being flaky, and they only went out after February half term. We set very clear boundaries and expectations for placement, there are clear procedures for absence for genuine reasons, and we use our discipline procedures for students who do not follow these. However they are supremely unconcerned, parents rarely come along to the meetings, even though it is clear they can be re-arranged to suit the availability of the parents. There are no consequences that actually matter, they don't fancy going, so they don't bother. We're in the process of pre-enrolling for next academic year, and I have rejected the majority of students so far, because they haven't gone to placement this year, or have gone and made minimal effort. I am not recommending them for another course with a placement element, they will have to either go to another department in the college with courses which don't require placement, or get a job.

The current benefit system doesn't help. We have students who plainly have no interest in being in college, but their parents cannot afford to lose the benefit money, so they force them in.

It's a big ask of businesses to take on a student, even if it is only for a week, and it's frankly embarrassing for us when they behave the way they do, it gives an awful impression of the college. There's so much pressure on the curriculum staff to recruit, to get the numbers through the door, and to keep our pass rates up, but we're often dragging frankly incompetent students through qualifications simply to protect our data. It's wrong, and it makes a job that for the most part I love extremely difficult and frustrating.

Agreed. My law office is now incredibly dull for a work experience student. First you have to get the whole idea of a WE student past HR and the DEI function. Then you’d have to get them access to the systems (which they can’t universally have).

In the past we’d use WE students to help create the hard copy court bundles (now all electronic using specialist software and we can’t risk the students messing it up), or researching points of law (in the library - now all electronic and we do t have time to train them on it), or attending and helping at court (now mostly remote). And on top of that, most people are WFH the majority of the week, so you don’t even get the war stories in the break room.

Office life is really no fun anymore.

It needs to be more of an incentive than just a reminder. It is too much work and too little benefit for employers otherwise.

But an incentive would cost money and we don't have any.

DD wants to do a computer science degree. We have been looking at any IT -related companies, large and small, that she could travel to. Many of these we are discounting as the smaller ones often sound like they are people working alone from home offices. The larger ones don't have contact details so we are often sending emails off into space. I have asked for ideas on all the local Facebook groups. We are looking at job websites and contacting any companies that take on trainees and apprentices as we assume they are used to employing school leavers. So many 14 and 16 year old are all looking for placements but it's not as if they actually exist, it feels like we are just begging for something that isn't there.

I don’t know what the solution is but it just feels like even a week in a local shop seems impossible to find.

When school students are expected to source and arrange placements themselves, it simply bakes in privilege and advantage that is already there. Those with contacts (parents, wider family, friendship group) have a head start over talented - but less socially advantaged - students who don’t.
In our area all NHS work experience is arranged centrally to recognise this, and it’s for yrs 11 and 12, not lower. That way the consultant’s daughter doesn’t have any additional advantage over the Tesco picker’s son.
I find yr 10 work experience to be a total waste of time, as options for U16s are limited. Yr 12 makes more sense - but BTEC/ T-level placements should be arranged with the support of the college or school as they’re part of the course.
If they’re doing A-levels, and aren’t sure of what they want to do beyond their degree, then their cafe/bar/lifeguarding duties are enough to give them a taste of working life, surely. Not every kid has their life mapped out at 17, and that shouldn’t be a problem - either for them, or for the hapless businesses who have to find them
something to do for a fortnight.

I’m a professor in a university and often take on work experience kids - one to four each summer. Some kids of friends, some random, some from EDI schemes. They get to spend time sitting in on my meetings and going to university seminars etc.

there is still a whole lot of paperwork to do for each student but most of them are nice and I hope they learn something

if you are near a university, email professors to ask if there are possible placements.

There's surely a gap in the market for a 'work experience' in-school provider? (Let's face it, the market seems to be saturated with external providers coming into schools to talk about 'internet safety' and 'exam revision skills', and this would be much more useful.)

Every pupil could indicate an area of interest (such as Medical, Law, Marketing & Comms, Trades, Health&Beauty, Fitness, etc.). They spend some time watching/listening to presentations about that area, some time doing group workshops and role plays, a day touring a local relevant facility as a group, and some time creating and presenting their findings - all facilitated by 'industry experts'.

Parents would pay - it would be no worse than some of the other things I've been obliged to pay for.

And as this doesn't yet exist, my own company has drawn up a fully remote Work Experience week for schoolkids. It's only for company employees' kids. They haven't done it because they think it's going to help the kids in any way, but because they recognize that work experience is a massive pain in the neck for parents to organize.

Could you contact the local colleges who run IT courses, ask if they could accommodate some TA work? Or work alongside the IT department if they have one in house?

If it's a week placement I can tell you from an IT perspective there's almost nothing useful that DD could get done in a week. For all the reasons that PP have given.
Her best bet is to try to do some volunteering maybe at a charity? Maybe one that does repair shop style stuff?

Some of the kids at my sons school did do a paid for online 'work experience' ran by some city type companies.

When I did my year 10 work experience my school said part of the experience is finding a placement ourselves - looking for suitable places, contacting them ourselves, but I seem to remember they had some suggestions for places to contact. I think that's a good middle ground.

We had a work experience girl at my workplace last week. We tried to give her tasks to do but the poor girl spent most of her time standing around and watching.
I'm taking my 14 year old with me to work one day next week, not work experience but a charity thing (the students work for a day and instead of paying them, the employers donate money to the charity) but they are covered by the school insurance so it's less of a risk for the employers (I might even let DD use power tools ) and she'll probably come again for her actual work experience week next year but she gets another week the year after and I'd prefer she applies for somewhere else herself then.
In my country they also have summer job campaigns for teenagers, where certain big employers take on teenagers for two weeks at a time and pay them 400 euros at the end. They can also work for the municipal council (park maintenance, street cleaning, things like that) and churches offer summer jobs for teenagers too (cleaning graveyards is a popular one). So lots of well organised opportunities for teenagers to learn about working life.

@PeapodBurgundy I so know where you are coming from.
DD gets frustrated that on her course there are so many who don't seem to care and seem to be doing the course as they have to do something rather than actually being interested.
She says so much time gets wasted chasing late assignments and nagging people to apply for placements!

A careers week with speakers, and also various employment sectors who wanted to encourage future recruitment could make videos. That would allow all the pupils to get an idea of a range of jobs not just one or two. There’s so many which simply can’t provide meaningful ‘work experience’ to children (if they’re even allowed on the premises). There’s lots which would only be accessible if you live in the right sort of location for it, be that big city or countryside.

Probably the main focus should be on helping kids who may otherwise end up as NEETs. For those going on to higher education, well obviously they need some sort of ‘informed choices’ re courses but summer internships at that level are likely to be more realistic aren’t they?

Some years ago DDs school replaced y10 work experience with an Enterprise week.
2 or 3 days of apprentice/dragons den, designing a product and pitching it. Then winning 2 teams implement and sold in town, others did CVs, interview practice etc. Was good. Dd2 didn't get to do it due to covid, don't know if it is still going.

I think a lot of schools organise mock interviews for all thier pupils and outside professional volunteer to give the pupils experience.

I also think many/all? schools do bring in outside speakers to talk about opportunities in thier industry and what it's like - but not condensed into a week.

I think the issue with work experience in year 10 is it was meant to be as much about getting up and going somewhere and seeing real working environments, even if they weren't relevant to your career choice. But even that's hard to do now.

We are spending hours trawling through websites and racking our brains to come up with an idea of where she could do a work placement and it all seems to be for nothing. We don't ive near a university or a charity that I can think of. But I totally can see why would any of the employers we are contacting want to take her on for a week, there is nothing in it for them. It's exhausting but i really want to find her something.

Have you looked at virtual work experience? There are quite a few places offering it these days.

I’m trying to sort this out for my y8 (13) DD. Guess how many businesses are willing to do it (insurance, safeguarding etc.), even for a day? Exactly 0.