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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:
QuintessentialyFestive · 03/12/2011 16:20

Work experience is important.

He should go in in person. He needs to show the manager that he has the confidence to deal with customers, so he needs to go himself and ask.

I was keen on music when I was a teen. So I marched up to the owner of the coolest independent cd/record shop in town, and told him that we were doing two weeks workplacement, and I could think of no better place to work than in his shop.

I had two fantastic weeks. I was helping customers, working the tills, and in quiet moments I was cleaning record covers and dusting. But mostly, I was actually working.

I was not supposed to be paid, but the owner let me chose a cd for my hard work. It did lots for my self esteem, and I really enjoyed it.

QuintessentialyFestive · 03/12/2011 16:24

I should add, I dont think workexperience is important for the CV, but for the self esteem. At least it was for me!

exoticfruits · 03/12/2011 16:33

I don't know why people post on AIBU if they have a set idea of the answer, and don't like disagreement? Were we just supposed to have a general rant about work experience?

SoupDragon · 03/12/2011 16:35

This isn't AIBU.

cricketballs · 03/12/2011 16:44

whilst this thread is not on AIBU, I would recommend that the op actually takes note of the overwhelming support for year 10 students completing work experience and the benefits that are gained; not for the job itself but the whole experience of being in an actual place of work.

Op; you asked for opinions from teachers/parents and you have been told by everyone bar 1 that it is a -

positive thing for a student to do
it is required by law
your son will have 10 days unauthorised absence on his record if he fails to complete it

I think that you really need to take heed of this and admit that your son will be best served by you changing your opinion

BIWI · 03/12/2011 16:50

The thing is, WE isn't just about the work itself. It's about learning what it's like to be in the workplace. That means working out how to get to work, being there on time, dressing appropriately and interacting appropriately with other members of staff and (depending on the job) members of the public.

It's a huge life lesson, and as such is can only benefit him.

Northernlurker · 03/12/2011 16:50

I'm not appreciating the narky tone of the OP either. Yes you're wrong. Really wrong. Quite amazingly wrong in fact.

Poor ds - forced to spend two weeks being tutored instead of actually getting sight of the real world.

exoticfruits · 03/12/2011 16:59

Sorry-it sounded like AIBU -my fault-should read. Xmas Blush
However OP is set on ignoring the majority, so I am sure we were just supposed to have a general rant.

Original poster
Alouisee · 03/12/2011 17:05

I don't think I said that work experience was to make life easier for the teachers! I think it benefits the day to day running of the school.

During the weeks that years 7 & 8 are on residential courses, year 9 has an "activity week" and year ten are off on work experience. The school has lost lots of teachers to the residentials and the activity weeks, it must be tricky to run the timetable when that many staff are out.

I think if he eventually gets a "good" placement that's all well and hopefully good but I won't be recommending he spends a fortnight washing up in a greasy spoon if that's all he can get.

OP posts:
Northernlurker · 03/12/2011 17:09

What's wrong with washing up in a greasy spoon? Many, many people do it for a living and you know, it's quite useful for over-protected children to learn the value of hard work. Do you mean to sound so precious?

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 03/12/2011 17:11

yes, our school does exactly the same thing. It is designed to bring all the trips and extra curriculuar stuff together.

However, and this is the important thing to note, schools have to do work experience in either year 10 and 11 at some point

So the work experience isn't something your school is doing to keep year 10 occupied whilst everyone else is out on a jolly, its an essential requirement of the KS4 curriculum that your school has cleverly timed to happen with least disruption to their GCSE studies.

Original poster
Alouisee · 03/12/2011 17:12

No I don't deliberately go out of my way to sound precious. Just that washing up in a greasy spoon without good reason isn't what ds has planned for his life nor is it what I'd envisaged for him.

Don't worry Northern, I'll fuck off off back to the parallel universe that I seem to inhabit when I post on anything but the most lighthearted threads on Mumsnet.

OP posts:
MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 03/12/2011 17:13

Surely its upon you to make sure he does have a worthwile placement Xmas Confused he still has to do it though...

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 03/12/2011 17:16

It is worth washing greasy spoons if it helps educate him about what a lot of people have to do for a living, what a hard day's work can be like and also to help him work out what he doesn't want to do in the future.

I think that point was made very well up thread.

seeker · 03/12/2011 17:16

Why not? If nothing else it'll give him a crash course in how the other half lives-no bad thing, IMHO. Partly because anything that builds empathy is an unqualified Good Thing and also because nothing concentrates the mind on getting decent qualifications quite like finding out what life can be like without them ( and with them in some cases, come to that!)

Bunbaker · 03/12/2011 17:18

"schools have to do work experience in either year 10 and 11 at some point"

Not if there is no funding for it. In my earlier post I wrote that DD's school can't afford to fund WE this year and the parents are furious.

Northernlurker · 03/12/2011 17:18

You're just being ridiculous now. Part of the point of WE is for the child to experience work. As soon as you start saying 'well I don't envisage x or y in ds's future' you are firstly reducing the chance that he will find a placement with interesting and interested partie and secondly you're setting him up with a huge amount of pressure to live up to what you envisage for him. I don't expect my daughters to spend all their lives working in a cafe either but I think it would do all of them a hell of a lot of good to do so for a bit. Getting on with people, following instructions, working till a job is done are things you can learn in any workplace and are things ALL teenagers should learn. They will not learn them at home with mum.

StrictlySazz · 03/12/2011 17:19

I spent a lot of my spare time as a student working in a great spoon Happy Eater. It was a great laugh.

I went on to Uni and took rofessional and run my own business

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 03/12/2011 17:19

I missed that post Bunbaker, that's really Xmas Sad

trixymalixy · 03/12/2011 17:21

I did my work experience in an air traffic control centre, it was cool. I ended up studying aeronautical engineering at Uni, but now work in finance. Wish I'd tried to get into air traffic control now...

OP you are a loon.

StrictlySazz · 03/12/2011 17:22

I spent a lot of my spare time as a student working in a great spoon Happy Eater. It was a great laugh.

I went on to Uni, then took professional qualifications, had 15 years at a top firm and now run my own business. I remember my catering days with great nostalgia.

You really do seem to have an odd attitude to anything other than academic success. I do hope your DS can think outside the box a bit.

StrictlySazz · 03/12/2011 17:23

Oops, sorry ignore 1st post. Bl

StrictlySazz · 03/12/2011 17:23

Bloody phone. I give up.....

BIWI · 03/12/2011 17:28

Perhaps it would benefit your DS to spend two weeks washing up in a greasy spoon, Alouiseg?

Of course you don't want him to end up doing that for the rest of his life, but it wouldn't do him any harm at all to learn how privileged he is.

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 03/12/2011 17:28

the best placement visits I did was to an Undertaker's, where I learned all about how they prepare the body for burial or cremation. I got the impression that, in a profession where the whole point is to make the process seamless and to take the thinking away from families, he was really grateful for the opportunity to show just exactly what it does take.

I also enjoyed the placement to the London Underground train garage...really interesting stuff...even though I have no intention of doing eith of these jobs myself!!!
both placements were specifically requested by and sorted by the students and their families.

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