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.

Work in a large school. We only take ex students or children of staff.

It is absolutely not beyond the wit of schools to sort this, and the kids would have far greater opportunities and less stress if they did!

It might not be beyond the wit of schools, but it is beyond their capacity.

Well, you will recall, then that there were endless students sent back after two days, that staff complained about visits, that they could claim petrol, and that their car insurance actually didn't cover them to go out on visits...

You also might be harking back to a time when local employers were plentiful and when community support was a thing. Halcyon days when we sent students to card hones, hospices, banks, factories and workshops, golf clubs, hairdressers, law firms.

The teachers' workload agreement, quite rightly, introduced the notion that teachers should not have paid responsibility for administrative tasks ( nostalgic sigh). So careers advisors etc became more widespread. But they have a bigger brief. Really it's the end of LEAs that has seen the demise of work experience. It was their paperwork and insurance , not the school's.

I've just had to organise DDs year 11 work placement. When I was at school you chose from a list, but we had to source the placement ourselves. DD struggles hugely with social anxiety and this is her idea of hell. She doesn't know what she wants to do and would get nothing out of a placement in an office or similar as she'd be too scared to talk or ask questions. She is therefore spending a week doing a work placement at her current part time job! 🙄

I think work experience is a bit outdated. So many workplaces have changed from when I was at school. There is so much remote work now, its hard to get kids involved in the same way as years ago. It's a box ticking exercise and I for one would be glad if it was scrapped, or at least optional!

How can it be relevant though if you have no idea what type of work you want to get into ?

So you are trailing someone round an office for a week ( as that's what's available) . Is that better than your part time job in a cafe if you want to work in hospitality?

Or you do the office thing then after a levels decide on construction. Totally irrelevant.

Now I did say about how it's not any good for kids who don't know what they want to do?

I see it from the employers side and can honestly say most employers are not interested in committing time and resource to looking after/finding things to do for teenage school students.

This is why parent contacts play such a big role - because that’s the only way most employers will let it happen, under the radar, as a favour.

Even local cafes/shops aren’t willing - they have actual adults applying, with relevant experience desperate for work.

It’s not the schools fault - they can only do so much with dwindling funds. But if they its not mandated by DfE, worth considering getting rid of it.

Higher education centres do organise some, but they are really sought after.
It all seems to do with the safeguarding, apart of resources to keep an eye on a young person at work.
We are looking for something for mine too. I amadvicing her to do some voluntering if nothing pops up.

I think if the school makes it compulsory and wants you to work in something relevant to your future, then they should help secure placements.

At DS school, it's optional, they don't help find places but they do their fair share of admin for anyone who does. Those who don't find placements (more than half) have a week of activities in school.
Generally, the ones who find placements are those who are more motivated and/or have motivated parents so the in-school activities are poorly attended, a lot of people suddenly off sick.

Sending off emails and not getting replies unfortunately builds the resilience needed for applying for real jobs - where this seems to be the new normal. At least back in my day, people responded to letters/phone calls even if it was a "no".

As school are saying they have to do it, they should help more. DD has tried lots of places but all have said they don’t work with Year 10 as they are under 16. So some kids whose parents can arrange placements for them get amazing opportunities and some don’t. This is not equitable.

https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/modern-work-experience/

this is the way ….

The school does have a small number of placements they have for those who can't organise them - but generally the kids want to avoid them as they're not particularly fun placements. It's quite good as a motivator for those to organise their own though 🤣

Schools do it to meet the Gatsby Benchmarks. There’s lots of evidence that work experience is super beneficial for young people. It is much cheaper and easier for schools not to do it. And a big part of me wishes schools would stop because their lives would be so much easier.

And yes, some people have better experiences than others. Tbf that’s just life though isn’t it ? Schools can put the scaffolding around the young person, but ultimately the majority get out what they put in.

the trick though is every year we see young people gain hugely - in confidence, in independence, learning they are capable of getting a bus, learning they can answer a phone. Are offered part time jobs and even apprenticeships. So yes, it’s a giant pita and not easy for anyone. Parents, school, employers, student. But the vast majority of students IME gain massively and have a great time.

@Mumble12

They can do online WEX with Speakers for Schools, Unifrog, John Lewis, Springpod. So those who like the idea of wfh can do those ones.

Maybe the bad outweighs the good with work exp erience? I think it heavily relies on family connections in reality so introduce s children cynically to the role of nepotism in life which is hardly helpful.

I work in the NH S and seeing children exclusively from a local grammar school with a disproportionate number of medic parents quite happily shadowing clinicians is not the greatest in terms of widening social participation. What can you do though?

the trust set up a work experience team which is effectively bypassed when it comes to work experience despite worthy intentions. Local grammar and private schools are seen as 'safe bets' for interested and engaged students suited for professional roles and so get preference for experience continuing to exacerbate social inequality at one level.

He's going for a Chemistry degree, he's thinking maybe forensics or biochemistry for the future, he would have liked to see what it's like to work in a lab, for example. I work in finance, he's incredibly unimpressed with having to do his work experience with me.

@DuaNinja times have certainly changed since we were at school, but in some ways it's easier to find out about jobs because most companies have websites. Also, many of the larger companies have online work experiences for school students. I realise that may not be what your daughter was hoping for, but it does at least widen participation because greater numbers can take part.Try signing up to the mailing lists of organisations such as Young Professionals, which share information about work experiences. Via Young Professionals, one of my son did a few days with the PWC Virtual Insight programme, and another did a few days online with HSBC bank. Neither of these aligned with the work experience week at school - they did it in school holidays - but that didn't matter.

Don’t limit your DD to just computer/IT companies. I work in college education and we have students who are doing placements (albeit TLevels) in retail, engineering, building suppliers, accountants, and manufacturing! Does she know what part of computer science she wants to do or enjoys the most? For instance does she enjoy programming, website building/design, networking, support? All industries are touched by IT so reach out to bigger companies that may have an IT team. If possible make phone calls and in person. We have much more success with placements in these types of industries than IT based ones. Do you have a National Trust or English Heritage Trust nearby? I know of a student who has a place at a National Trust property doing IT stuff.

Schools should organise 6 encounters a year. We provide 9.

Have you read their careers info on the website about what they provide?

Our school’s attitude is basically ‘go and work for your dad for a week’, while still stating that it should be relevant to your future career. Great if you want to be an agricultural contractor, less so if you are aiming for medicine or nuclear engineering. It’s just a box ticking exercise and well over half of kids don’t find a year 10 placement and nothing comes of it.

The whole point is to teach the students to find a placement themselves…

My nephew who is severely autistic & attends a specialist SEN school has just done his work experience at a local museum, he spent a fortnight photographing & labelling fossils & dinosaur bones, he loved it & is going back during the holidays to do voluntary work.

Ds did his at the local library, it is run by volunteers, he just called in on his way home from school, took his CV to hand in & got to speak to the lady who organised the rotas, she told him there & then he could have a placement.

@DuaNinja If she doesn't find an on-site placement then your daughter could spend the week doing free Microsoft training and work towards some certifications that will help to jump start her career: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-learn
It will be extremely useful.

It’s really not. The whole point is to tick the boxes to achieve Gatsby Benchmark 7.

As many have pointed out, in the past schools had links to local employers and pupils could simply pick a relevant work placement from a list of - the entire thing was organised by schools and employers working in partnership.

Now, the vast majority of employers have zero interest in hosting work experience students. I live in a village outside a market town and there are ZERO local employers within a 20 mile radius who take Y10 work experience students, so the only Y10s who do WE are those with a parent in a trade, and even then a lot of them are sitting in the van playing with their phone while dad works because they’re not actually allowed on the building site or farm or whatever due to insurance, safeguarding, and not having completed the relevant H&S training.

For office-based jobs it’s just as bad - filing, photocopying, opening the mail etc are a thing of the past in most office jobs, so there’s nothing for them to do except sit in on meetings, many of which will be on Teams anyway. And again, employers have no interest in hosting them anyway.

I don’t think it was the schools that had the connections, it was the local authority’s Connexions Careers Services which are long since gone in most areas although do remain in a few often with a different name / remit. It’s just another thing that nobody thought about when moving to academies.

think some hoped Careers Hubs might bridge that gap.

Good point. Academy chains have really broken the local link. Our infants and juniors were not academies and teachers were all local and had a deep knowledge of the community - many of them being from local families that could trace back for generations. The secondary is an academy and all the teachers commute in as the academy seems to shuffle them about, they are nice enough but if you happen to mention something that anyone local would know (such as a landmark or bit of local history) they have no idea. They aren’t really part of the community at all so it’s not surprising that they would have no ability to organise WE.