I don't want ds to do work experience.

[Alouisee]

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.

Many students I know come back from Work Experience complaining about HOW BORING it is.

It's one of their most valuable lessons they will ever ever learn.

And make sure DS gets on to those greasy pots at home. They don't wash themselves.

Then when he is the surgeon general/archbishop of Cantebury/the PM/the next Young Apprentice he may be a tad less condescending than his mother.

Also, your DS is surely old enough to make the decision as to whether he feels it is worthwhile. He is going to be the one, if you prevent him doing the work experience, who will have to explain to college admissions officers, future employers, and his peers who doubtless will be chatting about their own experiences that "I didn't do it because my mum didn't want me to".

Regardless of the benefit he may or may not gain through work experience, this first experience of work is a milestone in his life that all his peers will be going through. Are your own feelings really so important that it is worth preventing him meeting that milestone at the same time as his peers?

OP,
Do you think that your ds is destined for university, and thereafter a career in business or academia, and therefore need extra tutoring rather than work experience? And work experience is for the "lowly" people who decided to not enter university education?

If so, you are once again glaringly wrong! Learning to maneuver through work, and work politics, keep time, show respect and learn customer service skills, is important whatever you do. Maybe especially if your ds is going to spend a considerable amount of time in education.

And if your ds thinks that getting a job is all about sending an email, and waiting for work to fall into his lap (like you have engineered for his later work placement) then I fear he needs this experience even more!

I think maybe the OP could do with some work experience actually - anybody run a greasy spoon?

Jesus no! He's extremely average and has to work really hard to get decent results. If he wants to go to University he'll need decent A levels, to get to the 6th form college he needs decent GCSE's. Surely waiting til 16 AFTER GCsE is a more logical way of doing things.

By then they'll be 16 and more doors will be open to them.

I've done enough shitty jobs as a schoolgirl to know that I don't want my kids to have to do them "for fun" .

I'm going to have this conversation with friends tonight, I wonder whether the outcome will be similar.

"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. "

You really do come across as extremely toffee nosed and entitled.

If you want him to learn the value of work, even hard work, and understand good work ethics, you better come down from your high horse here!

I stacked shelves in the library when studying, I also pulled pints in a bar.

My husbands first job was as a kitchen porter. He worked relentless 12 hour shifts. He learnt humility, and good work ethics. He is now the md of a global company. There is absolutely nothing wrong in working in a greasy spoon, or work as a kitchen porter, or supermarket.

Handing your son the world on a silver plate, might not do him any favours, might not build his character or stamina, might not prepare him for actual real life.

Well I'm vehemently opposed to the way unpaid workfare programmes are being implemented and described as "Work Experience." (The key issues being the length of the placement, what the "worker" gets out of it and whether the "employer" is making a net gain.)

But I think real Work Experience can be absolutely brilliant ? including the "it's booooooring" experiences. And the students I've supervised in my workplace have always said they got a lot out of it.

So let him have the experience, so he can learn from it, like you did.

Why not get a tutor in now already?

Our son (year 5) will get private tuition after Christmas, once a week.

Anyone got a mine that needs reopening? There's a bunch of 14 year olds needing life experience.

For what it's worth, my son decided not to go to university. The experience he gained on his school placement gave him something to talk about at his first job interview for which he was very grateful. He got the job.

"I've done enough shitty jobs as a schoolgirl to know that I don't want my kids to have to do them "for fun" "

It's not about you, it's about him. Just because you did them, doesn't mean he shouldn't! And I don't think anyone on this thread has described WE as fun. The overwhelming view seems to be that it can be a hugely beneficial experience.

I do think you're being a bit precious and snobby about this, I'm afraid. It will do your son good to have this experience.

"Anyone got a mine that needs reopening? There's a bunch of 14 year olds needing life experience."

Are you a little bit dim?

Clearly

I agree with others that say that working in a greasy spoon and similar jobs give give a good grounding for anyone.

I wouldn't want to employ anyone who had the attitude that they were above any type of work. In almost all jobs you have to start at the bottom and do the boring turning the handle stuff before getting onto the more interesting stuff. I

I did WE from 14 for a couple of weeks every summer which was instrumental in getting a training contract after I finished law school years later. I also worked (earning a bit of money) doing unskilled jobs during the summer holidays which taught me loads about work. Did me a power of good and I would encourage my boys to do exactly the same.

Now I think of it, an Oxbridge senior tutor did mention that he liked to see his students doing summer jobs, including menial filing work, because it gave them experiences they might not otherwise have.

I'm with QF

sorry but I really don't get the planet you are on

To dismiss so many good contributions with the mines post. Really???

I am 23, I worked in a greasy spoon from when I was 14. I then worked all through university and whilst completing my MA. So many people are applying for jobs that I am going for and it is very stiff competition with everyone having amazing academic results. The reason I have got a job in my very specific field is that a lot of people I am against are from a much more privileged background than I was, where focusing on school/uni work was their only priority, whereas I needed the money to drink in pubs.

It does come across when you are being interviewed that you know you are the bottom of the pile, that it will be boring and that you are use to working bloody hard...so many of my contemporaries haven't quite grasped that they will not be running the company two weeks in and it is mainly due to their parents protecting them from life basically.

Work experience is important because it is that start of realising that there are much bigger fish in a much bigger pond than you and you need more than just academic results to get a good career.

Alouiseg - are you trying to be offensive?

One of my single most useful skills I have I learned as a student -silver service waitressing. I worked in all sorts of places in lots of countries- and I coiled always get a job whenni needed one. Why deny your son the opportunity to earn his living if he needs to?

People are touchy about it because you are limiting your sons opportunities in life by considering not allowing him to take up on this part of his education - it's like saying you don't want him to take maths. Uni and his first few jobs will all notice that it is missing.

The patent difference between mining and other jobs that demand hard graft (which you describe as "shitty"). Is that mining is dangerous. So your analogy is not working for me.

I am another person who firmly believes that these types of job can teach all of us valuable lessons. Many many successful people will tell you about valuable lessons they learned in these so called "shitty" jobs. The very best graduate schemes place their new recruits at the sharp end of the business when they start work- the ones who are not up to the job get swiftly weeded out if they can't stick it.

Your attitude towards these type of jobs is the most offensive thing about this thread. Did you not think it is rude of you to describe some people's job as shitty and proclaim that this type of thing is beneath your son. Are you and he better than people who work damn hard and don't earn much money?

If your ds goes through life with an attitude of "I don't envisage myself ever having to descend to this" he is going to find it difficult to land a job at all; it's not really an attitude employers take kindly to. I don't care that much what dd does for her work placement because the very act of finding herself a placement and adapting to the requirements of a job will make her far more likely to land a job she really wants later. I have never heard of anyone who failed a great business or academic career because they had been a success at working in a cafe when a teenager. But I have known people who have left school, and even university, with excellent paper qualifications and struggled to cope with job interviews because they had no flexibility.