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Secondary education

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Original poster

I don't want ds to do work experience.

318 replies

Alouisee · 03/12/2011 09:13

He's in year ten and has been told that for two weeks in July he must find a placement. He has contacted two bike shops but they havn't even replied.

I'm not keen on pushing him to contact lots of potential placements just so he can become an unpaid slave for a fortnight.

I feel that the school like to clear the decks in the summer with the residentials taking place and work experience happening. I'm quite happy to arrange some tutoring for him for those two weeks but I'm feeling a bit of a chicken about telling the school that work experience is for their benefit and not for the benefit of my son.

Anyone a teacher and got an opinion or a parent and been in this situation.

OP posts:
Original poster
Alouisee · 04/12/2011 12:03

Thanks for the thinly veiled insult. I hope that your daughter is the next Alan Sugar, minus the facial hair.

Anyway I'm clearly PFB, U, not mention snobby and condescending.

OP posts:
twinklytroll · 04/12/2011 12:04

I am aware of the rules about earning money however I hardly think my daughter is going to be snatched away because she has she drive to do something. She is not reporting to a factory every morning or even wandering the streets with a big bag if newspapers. Furthermore at the moment she is donating the money from her current "venture" to charity. We have not forced her or even asked her to do this , this is her hobby. I personally think it is bizarre but she is very much her own person. .

I suspect if you look into the background of many successful entrepreneurs they were doing something similar at her age. As well as earning her money she keeps her own "accounts" and is constantly trying to come up with new ideas.

As a parent I recognise that she is very different from me so we have encouraged and supported her.

Original poster
Alouisee · 04/12/2011 12:06

It's "you" not "yourself" and if you can quote me talking about washing up in a greasy spoon in the same sentence as having standards I'll concede.

OP posts:
grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 12:06

in theory YUBU, in practice the compulsary school work experience my class mates and I had was a complete waste of time! we got real work experience when we turned 16 and got real paid part time/summer jobs. And we didn't use our school work experience to get those jobs either!

I did mine in a very small art gallery which didn't change any displays of have any events for the whole two weeks, the paid staff were bored out of their minds so it didn't matter how pro-active I was there really was nothing to do once the floors had been swept except wait for the 3 phone calls of the day or 1 school tour of the week. It taught me nothing of work ethic because there was no work to be done. Was USELESS reference wise as they had so many bored work experience and unemployed "back to work" schemers there that they didn't bother to learn my name so wouldn't have had a clue who I was if they were contacted about me - I'm not even sure they'd have confirmed if I had even been there or not!

Most of my classmates had similar or worse experiences during that time, between 11 and 2, and after 3, we'd all meet in town cause we'ld been kicked out from under the staff's feet for 2 hour lunch times or half days.

Then I got a paid summer job in a busy hotel, learnt a work ethic there I tell ya! and used that reference to get better later jobs

twinklytroll · 04/12/2011 12:06

I am not insulting you, I don't waste insults on people I don't know. It doesn't seem worth the effort. I am giving a view different to your own, in a rather polite manner. Having a different view is not insulting someone .

picnicbasketcase · 04/12/2011 12:06

In my experience, it didn't make any difference to my university applications that my teachers didn't make anyone do 'work experience' as a school enforced practice. It just wasn't something this particular school took part in. I worked weekends in a shop from 15 onwards though, so I did have the experience of having a job, but I can't remember putting that on my UCAS form.

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 12:14

I didn't put it on my UCAS form either.

And you don't have to do hard manual labour to get on. If a DC knows what they want to do in the future and they focus their work experience/part time work/studies on RELEVANT areas, it really doesn't matter if they've never scrubbed a mountain of pans in their lives.

And work doens't have to be HARD and mundain and manual! I think that's a rubbish lesson to teach children, I personally would kinda prefer if mine tended towards something that didn't buggar their backs up for minimum wage!

cricketballs · 04/12/2011 12:15

cricketballs: "even with the snobbish comments about working in a greasy spoon"

Alouisee: "Snob? If that makes you happy, I call it standards"

cricketballs · 04/12/2011 12:18

grumble all parents would prefer their children to tend towards something better, but the lesson in life for all should be that these jobs exist, someone has to do them so don't look down on them.

If they can get WE in the area they want to work then fantastic, sometime however it is not possible, and any experience is better than none at all for all the transferable skills that WE offers

Original poster
Alouisee · 04/12/2011 12:20

I was replying to you, your comments! Cricketballs

Grumplestiltskin* Thank you - good points well made.

Anyone write CV's? I'm sure that irrelevancies are not encouraged.

OP posts:
grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 12:28

no its not, there's LOTS of work experience out there that's worse than none if it's poorly matched to the child. I learnt NO transerable skills in my school work experience.

And spending two weeks tagging along to something they hate is not going to make them suddenly admire everyone that does that job! its not secret millionaire FFS, anything really hard, dangerous, busy, meaningful isn't going to be able to have a 15 year old under everyone's feet all day. They're not going to be out with the paramedics or in the grotty factories and lorries that bring us our food or out with the bin men, they'll more likely be sitting in the back of a quiet shop putting price stickers.

cricketballs · 04/12/2011 12:33

"they'll more likely be sitting in the back of a quiet shop putting price stickers" but doesn't that in itself teach them something?

It is a motivator when a student undertakes a boring WE as they come back to school thinking there is no way they want to do that for the rest of their lives

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 12:33

noone in their right mind out have their 15 year old 2 week work experiencer doing the real hard manual handling these days anyway. They'll either be watching or put to work doing something dull safe and un taxing. They wont suddenly know what a real hard day's work is!

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 12:36

"It is a motivator when a student undertakes a boring WE as they come back to school thinking there is no way they want to do that for the rest of their lives"

LOL it was not a life changing two weeks! the hard working students came back hard working, and the lazy ones came back lazy. It just meant that the motivated hard working ones missed out on 2 weeks of doing productive things..

Tianc · 04/12/2011 12:43

Ah yes, Antidote, WE is often hard work for the workplace. It's intended to be useful to the student, not the "employer"!

It sounds like sending students back to school for inappropriate behaviour, and writing feedback which is critical but fair, could be the making of some of them.

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 12:48

"It sounds like sending students back to school for inappropriate behaviour, and writing feedback which is critical but fair, could be the making of some of them"
more of the life changing moments here... did anyone on here actually have their life turned around by 2 week school enforced WE? like in real life not what the producers show on World's Strictest Parents?

Tianc · 04/12/2011 12:55

Several people's DCs on this thread, grumplestiltskin. ^^

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 13:04

where? I've read the whole thread and not picked on on any "was so worried about my wayward DC, until they did 2 weeks in the local candle shop and now they've turned their lives around"

really where? have seen some where DCs have PART TIME JOBS that benefit them, but who's had the life changing 2 weeks school WE?

twinklytroll · 04/12/2011 14:00

I have worked with lots of students who have come back with a new and improved attitude.

I upped my game after my own work experience as I was determined never to end up in that job

Tianc · 04/12/2011 14:02

"worried about my wayward DC"? That's your addition.

I'm just referring to several posters who said their DC changed their attitudes or gained motivation because of the WE.

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 14:05

"I'm just referring to several posters who said their DC changed their attitudes or gained motivation because of the WE." and I asked you who? other than yourself? excluding those who were in fact talking about PT jobs and longer term volunteering not the 2 week school work experience, I can't find any other personal experience of changing attitude after 2 weeks enforced work experience on here.

StrictlySazz · 04/12/2011 14:21

Irrelevancies should be excluded from CV's.

Relevant examples of competencies gained and demonstrated during WE can be hugely important at interview stage, especially for 'first' jobs.

grumplestilskin · 04/12/2011 14:26

I think there's a huge amount of over estimation about the transferable skills that WE hosts will trust a 2 week FORCED WE kid to learn on the job.. I've worked at helping teens do CVs in the past and transferrable skills from hobby commitments were much more useful! really turning up for 2 weeks doesn't really show commitment, doing something for a year plus does

twinklytroll · 04/12/2011 14:41

I agree that the most useful work experiences are not likely to be ones that are enforced on students. They are much more likely to get something out of it if their is a positive willing attitude and a placement is carefully chosen.

RosemaryandThyme · 04/12/2011 14:53

Alouise - in an early post you mentioned your lad had been asking to do a paper-round, but it wasn't possible.
Would he actually like to do some form of work ?
He might be keen to have some more spending money / independence, regardless of any longer-term job prospects.

If he had a part-time job school would be more understanding should you decide not to go for the WE fort-night.

Reading between the lines I think you sound quite distressed, as though you hope for more of your son than he might be capable of.
Which might explain why you feel so anti-menial jobs.

If he needs extra tuition to pass gcse's he is not really going to be a'level material, if he has to work so very hard at even this level of study, uni may well be beyond him - work experiance because he "impressed a friend" - is a bit of a cop-out.

Why not have a word with his teachers about just how academic he is, and listen to him too - he may better suit a vocational route.