Yr 10work experience - how to organise it

[Kikithecat]

Can anyone offer advice as to how to get a work experience placement at a company of your child's choice? My ds would love to work at a particular company when his time comes next year and I was wondering if any of you had success writing to a company to ask for a work experience placement for your child?
Were you successful? Any tips for persuading them?

Grateful for any advice.

[MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic]

DSs school has stopped doing Yr10 work experience too - they'll be doing a week of in-school training instead, visists from Unis and Employers and learning how to write CVs etc. You can still do WE if you want though, which is lucky as we'd already arranged DS1's! Absolute nepotism on our part though. DS1 wants to do some form of engineering and we were lucky that a relative works in a related field and has lots of colleagues willing and enthusiastic to take DS1 on for a week.

The school has said it's been finding it harder to place Yr10 pupils, and leaving it until Yr12 opens up more opportunities for more interesting/relevant placements.

[creamteas]

Ragwort by meaningful places I did not mean to suggest that shelf-stacking wasn't worthwhile. Round here, there is not even places for most of the kids to do that. Most of them are either at work with a parent or not even doing that and quite a lot end up doing WE in their own school.

[EffieM]

I appreciate the message on here that the applicant should be the child rather than the parent but I am dealing with considerable fallout after my DD1 met with a PR manager this morning which had been arranged by a relative. DD1 is in year 10 trying to arrange placement for November of Y11. She is very emotional (about pretty much everything at the moment) and has crumbled in face of the challenge of trying to secure a place.
I want her to have the best oppportunities in life, I am so worried that she is making terrible choices every time she reacts emotionally to pressure. Can I help her or do I have to stand back and watch her make mistakes?

[creamteas]

I'm sorry your DD is upset over this, but if she is not able to cope with applying, will she really be able to cope in the placement?

Also to be honest, I think you are over thinking the long-term impact of year 10 WE. What ever she does later on, WE is hardly likely to have had a difference.

[lainiekazan]

I know it can be difficult, even traumatic, but it's good to face fear! Ds hates using the telephone. But upon receiving a positive (the one positive!) response to an application which invited him to phone up, he had to do it. There was much pleading with me to do it for him, but I said it would create a terrible impression if his mum phoned up and he must call himself [stern face]. There was a great deal of stammering and stuttering and redness of face, but he managed and felt much better for it. Now I have to teach him to make cups of tea and coffee!

[Kez100]

If your daughter is that emotional about applying then the one good thing that could come out of WE is if she gets over that issue and becomes more confident in this area. There are all manner of interviews ahead of her - for sixth form or college, any part time work she would like to do, Uni interviews and then real work interviews. This is an ideal time to realise she is finding it difficult and for her to learn how to overcome her fears, face rejection and, hopefully, after trying however many times is necessary, being finally successful.

Good luck to her. It's not easy but if you want her to have great opportunities in life this is one skill she will need in addition to exam results