Can't find any work experience - confused by the whole thing

[MrsRossPoldark]

I have been trying unsuccesfuly to find any wex for my DS16.

His school use a 'Consortium', which is a paid-for scheme. I have just asked for a refund of my £47 fee, as of the 7 placements he applied for, every one has responded with "we aren't doing wex this year", or "we aren't doing placements in the week you requested". At no point does the website indicate that the placement isn't 'live' or ask which week you want wex for, so you are left to remember to login and check progress every now and agin - not even an email to say 'your application was not successful'. You can only apply for 4 at any one time, so we are now 8 weeks on [having gone through the application cycle twice now], with nothing to show for it. I logged on the other day to find all 7 of my applications all with 'unsuccesful' against them, and there seem to be no more suitable placements to apply for now.

I have other children, a job, etc, so don't always remember to login regularly to check just doesn't always figure on my huge list of things to do and as a paid for scheme, an email to tell you whether your application has got to the next stage isn't much to ask surely?

I have asked friends [most are sole traders so don't have time to supervise]; local shops [no - we don't as a policy do wex; Health & Saftety issues; insufficient staff to supervise], websites; the school themselves [as a private school I expect a bit more proactive support and/or them to be using some of the parents themselves, as I know some would be running businesses that could take on wex's if they had a mind to, surely]. My DS doesn't want to do wex at all, but I feel he needs to as otherwise his CV will look empty compared to others who may be going for the same jobs in the future, but he just doesn't understand that aspect.

Any advice please, as I am getting very frustrated and on top of being unsuccessful at understanding how apprenticeships work for my ES17 [see separate thread!], I just feel lost, stupid and confused.

It is more typical for it to be at the end of Yr 10.
It was suggested to both my dcs (at different schools) that they start thinking about it at the start of Yr10 as if they leave it until the Summer they would be unlikely to be able to get a placement.
I've never come across paying for a lit of placements though - think the school are ripping you off there......

OP, I have sympathy with you doing some of the legwork on arranging Wex for your son, or at least doing some initial research. I have a thread on here somewhere about trying to sort out Wex for my DS1 this year. I see this from both sides as I used to be responsible for work exp in a previous role. We could only take one student per week and when all the schools are sending their students out in the same 4 or 5 weeks per year, the places went very quickly. Given that there were approx 600 students just in Yr 11 alone in our town (never mind neighbouring areas) we then spent weeks writing letters or answering phone calls to turn down other students.

I was all in favour of DS1 organising his own work Exp, until I realised that no-one (and I mean no-one) was answering his emails, or responding to follow-up voicemails. Several applications also required completing standard application forms with 150 words on why you wanted to work for Organisation X and 150 words more on what you could bring to the company. As he is in Yr 12 now, I called a halt to the whole thing and told him to concentrate on studying and mocks and I would do some of the legwork on Googling companies etc. although I wouldn't have made actual phone calls for him. Frankly, I think the whole thing is pretty pointless. He had a great Saturday job already so doesn't need Wex on his CV, doesn't need something to talk about in an interview and, given that he doesn't really know what he wants to do at uni/work, could well end up "hiding" the work exp anyway on a CV rather than answer tricky questions about why he worked for an architect when he is now interviewing for a job in film production.

Can he find a longer term volunteering job?
That would look good on his CV and the organisations might look more favourably on someone who is prepared to commit themselves.

Something like joining a regular work party in a local park, volunteering with Beavers/Cubs, applying to work in a library over the summer helping with the Summer Reading Challenge.

I totally agree with all the posters saying DS should do it by himself. However I left my DS to do it himself but he didn't. I left it and left it but he did nothing. In the end it was let him sink or take over. I spent hours and hours filling in applications and emailing them off. He's just finished and had a really worthwhile experience which will also look good on the CV. I know he should have done it himself but it just wasn't happening. Perhaps I should have stood back and watched him fail (for his own good).

I remember reading about a student from Eton or Harrow whose work experience had been "shadowing the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations". I think this spurred me on to try and do my best for DS. I can also see that doing my best for him might actually have been to do nothing but that's a tough one for a Mum.

Op - at this point I'd be tempted to let it go and let him focus on his exams. Unless he's not continuing to A levels then he has next year to round out his CV with something. My DS (Y10) is on placement next week, I've just looked and we had the letter home about it in September. We were told that if he found his own placement then he had to tell school 12 weeks in advance so that they had time to check out the employer. I think anyone who takes work experience placements will have filled them months ago and at this point in the game you've little chance of finding anything.

Your school doesn't seem to be that bothered about it otherwise they would be doing more to support it. Some schools (ours) will find a placement for every child in Y10 (around 270 of them). It's a powerful incentive to find your own placement when you know that the alternative is going to be something randomly allocated. I started off thinking that it was a total waste of time but watching DS struggling with his first ever job application form made me think again.

DS used the reference from his WE for a job where he needed two references, so yes WE does come in useful. He applied to a photographers very close to us and had a brilliant time, too good really, didn't have to be there until 10 and it was 5 minutes round the corner. They stopped year 10 WE after that and DD has had to wait until yr12. She has got herself into a SN school and will be going there end of June. The uni course she wants to do specifies that they have to have WE in that area.

I just find it incredible that having paid for a private school, and now being heavily in debt to do it, that despite several pleading emails to them to say that DS2 just isn't interested and won't look, that they have never shown any inclination to help. This has resulted in hours of arguments and moaning from DS and I'm just fed up with the whole thing. Whenever I talk to anyone about it, all I hear is little Jessie got a great wex in an accountancy firm. Well, how the h did they do it & why can't I? I have phoned and asked around but keep coming up against 'h&s' issues; company policy not to do wex; etc. Now that he's right in the middle of exams i might as well give up. He did have a job at the corner shop but stopped as he couldn't remenber to go or get up on time!

Sick of being made to feel like a second class parent with no mates willing to help because I can't blag something for him.

DS1 is just as frustrating as he spends all day locked in his room playing computer games and will be dropping out of college soon. Now I have to help him find a job or an apprenticeship & that's just as confusing. I just don't need this added work on my shoulders but if I left it to them, nothing would get done.

This is beginning to sound like a thread in a whole different area (teenagers/eduction/family life!!

I just find it incredible that having paid for a private school, and now being heavily in debt to do it, that despite several pleading emails to them to say that DS2 just isn't interested and won't look, that they have never shown any inclination to help

I'm sorry but you don't seem to be accepting that your Ds's are the ones who need to be taking the lead on things like this not school or you. If I were approached by a student's Mum I would be reluctant to take them on. It seems like you are treating them like little kids. What's the consequence of either of your children not getting things sorted?

He did have a job at the corner shop but stopped as he couldn't remenber to go or get up on time!

WHAT? That is appalling. Why would anyone want to take him after that?

You need to give him some tough love and force him to get his shit together. Quite frankly, its embarrassing.

So you've got yourself into debt to pay for private education and he sits on his arse all day x-boxing?

Did you think paying for his education was going to magically turn him into a bright ambitious young man?

Remove x-box, phone, tv, internet everything. Do NOT help him find a job, work experience, apprenticeship. Do not do his washing or cook him anything. It seems as if he has been massively over-indulged andn frankly he'll be leaching off you, or a future partner until he sorts his attitude out.

I don't think there's anything wrong in helping out. I did this for ds1 a couple of years ago. He has aspergers and there is no way he would have secured a placement for himself at 15. Would certainly not have managed an interview beforehand. As it was he barely spoke to anyone on his first day. However by day 2 he settled and 3 years later I am still asked how he's getting on and told he'd be very welcome if he ever wanted to come back.
So to all of you who say they'd never take on wex if the parent sorted it I think you are being a bit unfair.

jelli I think that is a very different situation, I'm assuming that you had explain to the placement beforehand that your son had SN? The OP has not given any impression that her sons have any SN.

Completely different situation jelli. Your son need assistance due to SN, the OP's is just bone idle and enabled to be so.

Titchy: my complaint isn't that he's idle (though he is but I didn't expect private school to change that!), but that the school themselves are idle and unwilling to help.

They have a 'wex co-ordinator' whose role seems to be just to remind parents to login to their third-party wex website to see if any applications were successful. When I asked if there were any other places I could look, or if DS could do his wex in the Art Dept (as a gifted artist expected to get A/A* it seemed logical to me) I didn't even get a response. I have also explained to them about his unwillingness to cooperate and again no response. I don't know what I expected, tbh, but when ES did his wex, he applied (with assistance from the school as he is borderline autistic), got a wex, did it, job done.

Maybe the school don't want to get your son placed as he is so lazy he's an embarrassment to them...

DS is in Y10. The vast majority of his year are going on a super expensive trip to Africa in July. We preferred to get him a new saxophone, his old one was knackered, and in any case, he seriously didn't want to go on the trip (he has AS and the prospect of it horrified him). He therefore has to do WE for the week the majority of his year are swanning around Africa (I'm not going to name the specific place because it might out me). The school provided no help whatsoever with this, they just sent a letter home suggesting that we 'use our contacts'. WTAF???? Most of the kids who aren't going (who seem to be the ones with SpLDs or the ones whose families can't afford it (and it is really expensive) are going to work with their parents for a week. DS can't go to work with me, I either work from home or (as is the case in the week in question) I'm overseas (in this case, attending and speaking at a conference in Brussels). Luckily I was able to find him something local through a friend but I think it's outrageous that I should have to do that just because we opted not to pay a fortune for a trip he would rather have died than gone on and which we couldn't afford anyway. In addition - said friend's firm told us that really he should have applied back in January to get an official placement, and also, that they don't usually look at 15 year olds. I was very lucky that my friend was able to swing it for us. We will have to go through this all again in Y11 when everyone does WE and we won't be able to apply to that firm again (school policy - no identical placements).

I feel your pain OP. My Ds was exactly the same 2(?) years ago. In the end the wex coordinator got him a placement in a library miles away!! and yes, I too had to do the running around, take hi to make initial contact (my idea to come to working arrangement). He was lucky in that because it was so far away from home, the library allowed him to start later and finish early. He actually really enjoyed it and got a great report from them.

I actually came to ask for a link to your aforementioned thread on the apprenticeship thing as that's now where I am with him and it's driving me mad...so, link please :)

Good luck with the wex btw.

The whole work experience thing pisses me off. When DS2 did it, the school did it in alphabetical order which meant that the Abbotts, Aclands and Addisons had their pick of the plum jobs and they'd run out of anything by the time they got to the Smiths. But, on the other side of the coin, it is generally a pain having someone in for work experience at work, because someone has to keep stopping what they're doing to find them something to do or explain things. I seriously doubt whether anyone genuinely learns anything useful.

Mrs R , most children at private school will go to university so work experiene whilst at school is not very important. One of my daughter did a week or part of a week at 16 - she had to get the tube to find a family on a council estate and take them to court and also cleaned up the sick on the court floor of one of the children which was all good experience for her (now a lawyer in London). My other children have not done any whilst at school although one had a part time job. in fact my older children did not pick careers until year 3 a university. There is plenty of time.

If you son is leaving school at 16 in a few weeks which is virtually unheard of for private school pupils then he has a lot of good successful businessmen to follow in the footsteps who did the same thing (although it's usually not wise). If he really won't go back for A levels why not send him to work for a year in South America or something?

Our school do not arrange WE at all.It is down to contacts usually My DC have arranged through friends , family and neighbours.If they can't find anything this way, primary schools are always a good fallback
I disagree that is helpful to UCAS at all (unless you are doing medicine or a handful of other degrees which are directly related to a particular job).If applying for a job a proper Saturday job would be much more useful.
Some schools round here don't even do Y10 WEX

Have decide to let it go & get him through exams first.

We discussed it again and he seems quite relieved that I'm taking that pressure off. He also says he wants to join the college gym over the summer before starting at college & when I said he'd have to pay for it, he shrugged, smiled his best disarming smile and said he'd be happy to get a job to pay for it! I think if he 'sees the point' he'll do it himself. He's very keen on getting in shape so that's motivation enough!

The shop job really wasn't him at all so that's prob why he was so unreliable. He needs to learn to say 'no' if a job isn't right for him too.

Solo: link to apprenticeships

www.gov.uk/apprenticeships-guide/overview

I have recruited hundreds of people and have never been remotely interested in what they did for work experience when at school. Don't think I have really even seen it mentioned on a cv!
I have had plenty youths through the door on wex and I always say to them it doesn't matter whether they are interested in this particular job or not, its the experience of the world of grown up work that is important. So if your son can't be arsed to get himself to work at the corner shop that's a much bigger concern.

Thank you MrsRP