How is work experience sorted in your school?

[Sweatingcobbles]

When I did it in the 90s school gave us a list, we applied for where we wanted to go from this list and school sorted it all. If several people applied for the same place then someone was chosen and an alternative place found for the others.

In ds school Ofsted complained that work experience wasn't happening so school have sent everyone from year 9-11.

In ds school the pupils had to find somewhere to go themselves, find contact details, contact, chase up, organise their times of work etc. Some are year nine and have had a nightmare as no one will take them.

I can see the benefit and skills they will gain from sorting it their selves but wondered what happens to those kids with adults unable or unwilling to help them find somewhere or who don't have the skills due to sen/sn to do so?

Ive been able to help my sen child but I know several are in school with no placement next week.

They have a directory of approved places. But Dd sorted it directly with the school.

I've worked at a number of law firms of different sizes and all have taken work experience kids. Most of them several a year and not just those connected to employees. They get to do admin/office junior work as well as a bit of shadowing and occasionally get to go on visits.

I'm not sure "interesting work ex

I'm not sure "interesting work experience placements" is the only thing you can get out of the experiment, but agree that for that purpose Sixth Form would be better as more likely that student knows what they want and can find something suitable.

For the younger age (YR 10 ideal imo), I think it's the actual un-snobbish experience of going out there and looking for work: getting yourself organised, thinking about how to present yourself, learning that not everybody is yearning to have your services, persevering against rejection. And not getting time off to do it, because learning to organise your spare time is also useful.

That's weird what LexiL said, b/c DD (yr10) looked for law firm placements. No joy, and on TSR everyone said very explicitly that law firm WE placements were only for university students only. We eventually found some law firms in London that said they would take yr10s, but London not an option for us. All of DD's emails were very polite & we did get replies, just not positive ones.

DD also asked most every dept. at nearest university (no joy). She refused to ask in shops or care homes (plonker).

our school doesn't do it at all, or allow time off school for it, so teens are left to organise it entirely alone during the holidays

Agree, brexit. All the law firms stated that client confidentiality precluded their taking WE kids. Likewise the law courts who used to do WE. Even some of the accountancy firms cited client confidentiality. Many businesses don't want pesky kids hanging round and health & safety offers a handy excuse.

I think the greatest value of any WE is learning how to catch a bus, talk to unfamiliar adults or the public... that kind of thing. WE is highly unlikely for many people to offer a great insight into their future career.

Ds actually got a Saturday job through rather unpromising WE placement. We too had zero useful contacts and ds found it very difficult to find anything. One Saturday a man in red trousers strode in enquiringly about WE for his ds. He demanded to know what the firm could offer his son. The boy's application was filed under "bin" ...