Work experience sh*t show

[Dwellernf]

DD17 is starting her 2 week college industry placement today. Level 3 extended diploma in equine studies. Students had to find an industry related placement and give all relevant info...placement address, contact details etc to the college by January. No problem. DD knew the yard she was going to, all arranged. Due to the easter holidays, students were given the option of doing it during the holidays, or the 2 weeks following. A few have already done their placement, or a few days of it. Good Friday we went to the yard to finalise days, hours etc. We had arranged it with the yard manager that DD would be doing these 2 weeks, as it allowed a member of staff to go on leave and DD would be the replacement. Yard manager was off over the Easter weekend and would see DD Tuesday. Good Friday pm... email from the college to say that due to the college not completing the necessary checks DD would not be able to do her placement at her chosen yard, and would instead have to chose from a short list of places that the college had managed to vet. The closest venue to us being 25 miles away! According to DD's group chat this was affecting 9 out of the 17 students, and 3 of them had already completed/started their days. These were now not valid, and they will have to re do them, at a different place!! We were told we had the Easter weekend to sort out the new placements!!! I managed to get hold of the course leader, and was told it wasn't HER fault, and the placement team had failed to get the relevant insurance docs. I explained that the yard DD was going to have full insurance and I can get them to send the docs on Tuesday when yard manager returns to work. No. It had to be in place before DD starts. The yard is a registered charity, in which one of DD's course lecturers is a trustee, as well as the charity's head instructor. She could verify all is in order. No. Still wont be done in time. The yard also run major show jumping and dressage competitions at the college equestrian centre. They would have the insurance copy? No! The events team is a different dept and we cant possibly 'cross departments'!!! I then told her that as course leader it was her fault as she should have made sure all this was in place for her students before the easter break, knowing they would all be going straight into it. She said it wasn't her job. I told her DD would be starting at her chosen yard on Monday, as I wasn't going to let them down or be prepared to change my work schedule etc over the next 2 weeks to take DD to a placement miles away (no public transport... we are very rural) To which she said she will fail that part of her course as it's not a valid placement! AIBU to think the college have mucked up big time here, and it is the course leaders responsibility to make sure all students had their placements sorted and verified? And AIBU to still send DD to her chosen placement? And AIBU to want to make a complaint to the college about this, and make sure DD does not fail this part of her course. The college had since January to do all the checks...

It might.
The college will have to bend in some way.
The DD does the course and the OP and the remaining parents can use that as leverage to make them accept it.

They hold more power here than the college would like.

9 studnet from a small cohort?
Will social media and the power to cause hell?

The yard can cover her on their insurance. Just speak to the manager to check your dd and the yard are covered.
Your dd documents everything she does, photographic evidence , get tasks signed off etc…
And complain to the board ( there’s a better term , sorry brain fog today) that awards her diploma/qualification about the college messing up.
It is indeed course leaders job to make sure everything is in place and they’ve made a big mistake. No reason your dd should miss out. This is basic paperwork when running courses that include work placements.

No there is insurance in place, the college just haven't verified it themselves. I would be writing a strongly worded e-mail about how this isn't on. Give them 3 choices:

1. They accept that the yard does have insurance because it has your daughter (and other teens?) doing work there all the time, and they let her get started and then get round to verifying the insurance.

2. She doesn't do her work experience at the same time as other people, so they can verify the insurance at a later point and then work out another week were it is convenient for the placement to have her.

3. She does her work experience at the place they have found for her, on the normal week, with taxis to and from the site everyday paid for 100% by them.

You're absolutely right to complain. Ultimately this is a big failing and one of the worst things is that if you and your DD had just taken the college at their word she'd be travelling miles to an inferior placement not of her choosing.

If it's dealt with by another department, it's no problem for the course lead to pass on complaints or feed them up the chain - in fact it can be useful to demonstrate why they need to change. If nobody complains, upper management will think the placements team are doing a good job.

Frankly how the college divides its processes is not your DD's or your problem, they have messed up and you're right to tell them that. It sounds like she will get a lot out of the experience, and if they decide it doesn't count they should give an alternative with a longer lead-in time than the Easter weekend that she can do later on in addition. If no and they pressure her to stop this placement, your course lead should have a head of department or something above them if needed. All power to your elbow OP.

I would do as you are doing and push the college to resolve tomorrow.

The yard has insurance.

The college can tick their boxes tomorrow or later this week.

Stand your ground and complain and see where you get to.

Do you not think that if the college could bend they would?
They should have done their checks. They didn’t. They now can’t sign off the placement. Social media, 9 students or whatever else you think makes the op powerful in some way doesn’t change those facts.

Three years ago I worked at a regional college that just delivered BTECs. One of the reasons I left as I felt it was a mockery to education.

We were literally bribing students with domino’s to just attend college at the end of the year as essentially no students were allowed to fail. Kids who had not showed up to 60% of their course or turned in a single piece or coursework? How were WE going to get them to pass?

That’s how colleges get paid. They get funding for each kid who passes.

The lecturer might be willing to let them fail but higher ups definitely won’t.

CC every email address you can find and I’d be certainly sending DD to her placement.

That's good to hear provided that insurance is in place for all of them as if is for your DD.
Apart from anything else, they are practicing being reliable. At the very least employers will have put time into preparing for having a placement person, and some will be relying on the extra pair of hands.
I would be disgusted with the college for responding as they have. Sure, mistakes happen, but the organisation as a whole needs to make sure they impact as little as possible on the students, who are presumably paying good money to be there. It's no good individuals saying 'not my fault' or 'not our policy' when there are more constructive ways of dealing with the error.

Have pm'd you.

It sounds like you know the yard really well and DD works there anyway. The right thing to do is to go there regardless so as not to let the yard down. Then the College need to sort out their mess, and the work placement should start from that point.

I would take this to the highest level, as the College must have a way of sorting it out. It sounds like they really need to get their act together though.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. I would expect this will happen with most of the placements unless senior management miraculously make the problem disappear. Your poor dd and students. What a mess.

No, I think the college want the students to make up for their fuck-up and save them from embarrassment. I think if these people did what they asked parents and students to do over the bank holiday weekend, they could have obtained the documents they needed. Now, their suggestion isn’t acceptable for a bunch of reasons, to nine of the cohort, whose efforts in doing their end of the process are now likely to be wasted, and so they’re going to have to bend. One of the affected students has even done her hours!

@Frenchbluesea
The overriding issue should be to ensure the students aren't disadvantaged backdating is a pragmatic response and one which is sensible.

Is it getting sorted @Dwellernf ?

My DD has started her WE today in a vets. She'd have had a meltdown if hers had been cancelled at short notice.

Check out the HSE guidance on work experience, on their website. The college looks like it has been neglectful and as I've visited thousands of employer's premises (not an exaggeration), having managed programmes for schools, colleges and universities, the college needs to fund this checking role properly, employing someone up to the job!! The stables will have employers liability insurance, should have risk assessments and even potentially been checked by another educational body. As your daughter changes legal status, it appears the issue is the college not doing their part of the process. I managed a team that placed 3,500 students a year, so have no idea how they failed to check so few placements!!

Everyone saying there is no insurance in place has absolutely zero knowledge of how insurance works! Work experience students would be covered under the yard’s Employers’ Liability insurance as long as your daughter meets the requirements of the insurer but the yard presumably have checked this and all is ok. The college has no impact on the insurance at all. What they do have an impact on is the checks they have failed to carry out which means they can’t validate the placement for the work experience and are therefore telling you it won’t be valid.
What a shitshow! Entirely their fault and I really empathise, particularly as the expectation will be on you to accommodate new travel arrangements and also tell the current yard your daughter cannot fill in for the member of staff on holiday

The work experience will still be work experience for DD, so yes I’d still send her along and would definitely be pushing it back to the college to rectify their huge mistake!

Lots of unhelpful posts from people who nothing about the equine industry. If you don’t know don’t post.

Equine industry relies on unpaid volunteers and students- of course they have insurance to cover.

All equestrian establishments are licenciés by local council- that includes health and safety and insurances.

Some are also vetted by the BHS.

The riding establishment will have had more inspections and be run by more qualified people (not to mention common sense), than the college.

OP do keep us updated.

Go above the course leader. Phone the college principle and get their view on it. They probably haven't been informed.

You need to email the head/ dean of the college. They’ve had since January to do the checks and haven’t, resulting in your daughter possibly failing her course.
I’ve had issues with courses and found contacting (and letting the college know) the assessors of course (the company who verify them).

Update... DD has now done 2 days and is currently on her 3rd day. However she is unable to upload her hours, and the course lead wont allow her to until a H&S check has been done. I sorted out getting the insurance sent over to them... This has been done. The college are obviously passing the buck to every available team... Placement team say nothing to do with them as they only deal with T levels and as equine didn't change to T levels and stayed as level 3 the equine team are responsible for WE checks. To be clear, this is a recent change for this year and previous years it has been the placement teams responsibility. They also inspected the premises last year for last years placements. When I told the course lead this, she said that their is another 'placement team' responsible for level 3 checks... although has yet failed to pass me their contact details! I did suggest it sounded like she was covering her or a colleagues obvious mistake, and she got quite defensive! The placement team (whom it has nothing to do with) have been helpful in sending over last years previous WP3 forms to course lead. However despite placement telling me that they have spoken to equine, and DD's WE is approved, Equine still wont allow it as the WP3 form needs updating to this year....Currently emailing the head. I am not sure on how the other students are progressing... DD said that as far as she knows they have all gone to their placements too.

Yep. The yard that DD has gone to is a BHS approved yard and obviously fully licenced etc. It is also a registered charity and used by lots of schools, RDA and other groups for equine therapy. Even one of the course instructors at the college is an instructor at the yard!

This is ridiculous and I'd be going scorched earth.

Can you use the chat to engage with the other parents to all agree to send an email to the head today?

I am on the case and hopefully getting it sorted. I hope your DD has a great time. They build up to it and look forward to for such a long time. For the college to just dismiss it as ;one of those things; is heart breaking for them and really knocks their confidence too. Good luck to your DD

Sounds an absolute nightmare and as if the college person you’re dealing is covering her back big time.

Maybe try a different tack with her - to try and get her on board. Still write to the head and gather the paperwork - but maybe try a softer approach with her. Ask to see her after college/ school - say you appreciate how tough all the changes in rules must be, different inspections etc, let her sound off to you and then hopefully she will soften and you can gently ask her how you can both improve the situation for the “kids”…
It may involve you biting your tongue a lot but sometimes changing tack is the only way to go when plain speaking doesn’t work.

Good luck and also to your daughter x