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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:
SoupDragon · 03/12/2011 12:06

How do you think they are going to fund their university time unless they get a job?

bruffin · 03/12/2011 12:06

DS is going to university but is not out of the real work place. He just turned 16 and has managed to get himself 2 jobs, one is a saturday job at a well known electrical store and the other a casual lifeguard at the local sports centre for the odd extra hours.

fortyplus · 03/12/2011 12:13

How about an alternative approach - organise the work experience in a role far removed from their likely career path? I organised my son to go out with the Landscape team at our local council - 7am starts and hard physical labour. Mind you - at their school they only do a week. He is now certain that he wants to work hard at school and not settle for a job requiring no qualifications... Wink

AmberLeaf · 03/12/2011 12:16

Fortyplus, that is a good idea!

Original poster
Alouisee · 03/12/2011 12:22

I like your style Fortyplus.

OP posts:
munstersmum · 03/12/2011 12:22

My nephew got a placement with the youth development team of a top flight football team. They took on 3 each year. He stayed with his grandparents to be near & really enjoyed the whole time. I'm sure it contributed to his being taken on by American summer camp for 3 months when he was 18.

RitaMorgan · 03/12/2011 12:22

I went and stayed with my aunt in a city for my work experience (in a theatre) - was really interesting!

DP put down "sewerage" on his form for a laugh and actually did get sent to a sewer Grin He got a paid summer job out of it though.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 03/12/2011 12:25

Don't you think that whatever his chosen career path is (that may well change, btw) he will in competition with other people to get that job? If his first day of "real work" Hmm placement or trial period in a company is the first day he has ever been to work in his life he is not going to stand up well next to his competitors, is he?

I think one of the main things about being expected to turn up at an actual workplace is that the people who will be supervising you are not actually ALL ABOUT YOU. They are wanting to get their jobs done and make the organisation run properly, whereas your son will have been surrounded by school and parents for whom his development and wellbeing is the focus. Learning that you sometimes just need to get on with stuff and do what's necessary (and if you are working in a team of busy people who can't stop work then sometimes, honestly, getting their lunch is what's necessary) is INVALUABLE.

As for him blessing the placement with the benefit of free labour, ahahahahaha. I have looked after countless work experience kids and it inevitably takes longer to explain how to do something than it would to do it yourself. They do it to encourage and support young people, and help them to learn and have a good experience.

I also got a holiday job out of my WE.

Original poster
Alouisee · 03/12/2011 12:28

I expect him to get a part time job after A levels and for the first 2 years at university at least in the long holidays. I don't expect him to work until his A levels are finished and or do I expect him to work in his final year.

Necessity is the Mother of invention and I expect that he will want to work to supplement his allowance - he has had some serious discussions with us about letting him do a paper round but we are too rural for it to be practical.

Working in something that is essentially unrewarding - in either sense, doesn't make much sense to me. However I accept that the vast majority of you think I'm either wrong or pfb.

OP posts:
ElephantsAndMiasmas · 03/12/2011 12:32

Yeah but why would he have to "Work in something that is essentially unrewarding"? It's the paid work/part-time jobs that are usually drudgery, WE means you can often do something really interesting, shadowing someone in a job that takes years to train for etc.

My friends and I did work experience in a castle, an undertakers Xmas Confused, following an MP around, a doctor's surgery, with "park rangers" in a national park, with a physiotherapist, with the local rugby club etc etc. There must be SOMETHING he is interested in?

If you're worried about his work, why not pay for tutoring for him for two weeks of the holidays?

Original poster
Alouisee · 03/12/2011 12:34

That's what I would prefer to do Elephants, have him tutored. (Just gathering any objections I may come across from the school)

OP posts:
StrictlySazz · 03/12/2011 12:39

dh took dnephew to his workplace - first time away from home, wearing a suit etc. he grew up an awful lot in that week - far more development than 2 weeks tutoring

bruffin · 03/12/2011 12:40

What does he really want to do?

LIZS · 03/12/2011 12:43

Sorry but I think this is more about you than your ds. Could your dh not help with lifts and he must get to/from school somehow, what might be available near there ?

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 03/12/2011 12:46

Actually as it turned out one lot of work experience I did at 14 ended up helping me to get the job I have now, over a decade later.

Also a LOT of job applications/interviews (even for bar work etc) ask for "evidence" of previous experience e.g. working with customers, facing challenges at work etc. Again, if your DS hasn't even got (that everyone else will have) his paltry 2 weeks of work experience to fall back on, he will be sitting there like a lemon.

I think you may be underestimating the importance of previous work to employers, which should surely be obvious, and the sheer competitiveness of EVERYTHING these days. Bumping up a couple of percentage points by having tutoring for 2 weeks will not make up for the lack of employment experience.

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 03/12/2011 12:48

I can't believe you could possibly imagine that trying to organise placements for an entire year group in the same week is the easy option for a school!!!

Its hell! And its only done becuase of the benefits that it brings to students.

but you can wrap your son in cotton wool if that what you think is really best for him!!

Out of interest, what will you be expecting the school to do for him in the week that everyone else is out? And what will he be doing when all the others need to write up their work experience folders that, in our school, involve the English department and also work on CV writing?

Ragwort · 03/12/2011 12:51

Working in something that is essentially unrewarding - in either sense, doesn't make much sense to me - how many people in RL have really, really rewarding careers? Hmm - I think you need to get a grip OP - your DS is going to grow up with a very 'entitled' sense of what working in the real world involves.

Many of us have worked in pretty grotty jobs throughout school and university - cafes, shops, old peoples homes etc etc (in my case) - all those jobs have given me fantastic experiences, they didn't have anything directly related to my final career but obviously gave me a hard work ethic as I can afford to no longer work (for money) Grin.

Bonsoir · 03/12/2011 12:55

My DSS1 would not have got the two-week work placement he got last year in London, aged 16, if he had not done the one-week work placement he did 18 months earlier, at 14. I think, OP, that you are quite naïve about how even at such a young age one experience opens doors to another, better one ("CV building"). Again, my DSS1 could not have done the course he did last summer if he had not done lots of language trips in previous summers. You cannot just swan up aged 18 for your first job or course and get something interesting - you need to show that you have been working up towards it for a while.

pixiestix · 03/12/2011 12:56

"I don't expect him to work until his A levels are finished and or do I expect him to work in his final year."

Wow, you and I live on different planets OP.

But good luck to you, your son sounds like he is getting some fantastic chances in life Smile

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 03/12/2011 12:59

Exactly, Bonsoir :o

daveywarbeck · 03/12/2011 13:00

There is also the point that whilst you and your son don't see any particular benefit to him in doing a plcaement, sometimes the rules of the time and place we find ourselves in i.e. school mean we have to do things we don't want to, or don't particularly see any point in.

Do you generally see your son as an exception to rules at school you don't agree with?

StrictlySazz · 03/12/2011 13:04

I agree with Bonsoir - seeing graduate applications these days (i have viewed many), those who are good have spent years working up to 'working'. They can demonstrate proactivity, tenacity, work ethic and the like. As someone else said, for inteviews they will need to demonstrate 'competencies' (leadership, problem solving, communication/listening skills). 'Real world' examples from this type of WE are invaluable.

exoticfruits · 03/12/2011 13:20

they are constantly force fed how important this year is yet suddenly 2 weeks out of school is necessary "for their cv" - seriously?

Yes. They need far more than straightforward studying these days. Any work contacts are useful. He might get a Saturday job out of it. More and more it is work experience, and who you know, that counts. Don't knock it.

EnjoyResponsibly · 03/12/2011 13:21

It's not just employers that will be interested in w/e or part time work. His university application will have a lot more colour to it.

Given DS wants to do a paper round and it's you (albeit due to location) that's objecting he clearly wants to do some work, why the heck aren't you helping him? He could work in the petrol station or supermarket whatever to make extra to supplement his allowance.

I am laughing gently at your attitude, and can only imagine your outrage OP when he starts at Uni tries to get a PT job and gets lipped to the post by all the other kids who will have jobs of any nature to put on their CV's.

Plus the school are going to think you're bloody bonkers.

Mrsrobertduvall · 03/12/2011 13:36

School is not all about getting qualifications....WE as someone said earlier, helps them realise it is not all about "them" ....that going to work entails getting there on time, having set lunch breaks and not wandering off when you feel like it, working alonside other adults (which most have never done), encourages self esteem, and knackers them out.
Dd is planning some voluntary work over XMas as she has lots of free time, and she would enjoy it....and she will be making her own way there.

You seem to have his life all planned out for him.