Year 10 work experience

[KitBag2024]

My son, along with many other schools I suspect, has to find his own work experience for a week next April. He'll be 14 and he needs to try and find something by December.

He's interested in engineering so we've spoke to every contact we can think of that might be engineering or engineering adjacent. He's also emailed out to various companies directly.

No joy so far. What other areas could he consider? He's emailed the big city library and I was thinking maybe charity shops might be a good bet? At least he'll be hands on unlike engineering which might have H&S issues.

He's not interested in law where I have contacts or a healthcare arena where his dad does. The school have discouraged them from asking their primary schools.

Bit stumped - any ideas? We're in an area with decent transport links.

This thread got resurrected so I thought I'd update. Thankfully in the end, the teacher in charge of work experience had done some background work with an engineering company and offered this to the first two students who got their CV in.

Thankfully DS was one of the two so he has something lined up. Hopefully this thread will be useful for others.

I hope he gets to see whether engineering is for him or not. I know there are so many types but it would be good to rule it in as a definite or out.

Yes.
Which part of the county are you in? - I know some people at the CPCA and I know a couple of EAs in Cambridgeshire or on the Cambs/Norfolk border. I also know enough about the area to maybe have some ideas about employers to contact, if you have an idea the type of work experience they want. Feel free to answer by PM.

Thank you @DogInATent. We're on the Suffolk side of Cambridge. I've just heard back from Cambridgeshire County Council who say they no longer offer this service and have signposted me to https://formthefuture.org.uk

I'll take a look at it with DS. I've lived in the area since birth, so know most of the big employers - the problem is age seemingly (under 16s are a no) and so we might must have to find anything for a week which qualifies.

I would of course be delighted to hear any suggestions you might have :-)

I can see both sides. DS has written to at least 20 local companies and got 2 ‘sorry, no’ responses and completely ignored by 18, despite finding out a contact name, tailoring the letter etc. We’ve managed to wangle a placement with his uncle.
On the other hand we take on one Wex student at work at a time (vet surgery) and all the local schools want the same week. It’s a total ballache from a paperwork point of view and having to supervise them when there is nothing useful they can contribute. Some of them have been great and had a genuine interest and some of them have been awful. We’d rather concentrate on the animal care, nursing and vet students who also need placements, or post16 students with an actual realistic chance of pursuing a career.

I wouldn't have framed it as dismissively as "It's only work experience".

Sorry I'm autistic I didn't mean it's not important. I shouldn't have said only.

Let me have a think. I'm more familiar with the area north of Cambridge.

Have you tried IWM at Duxford?

Funnily enough it was very high up my list - not 'near' us, but only a 30 min drive...

I know they have a youth-thing at other IWM sites, not sure if it's spread to Duxford yet.

the problem is age seemingly (under 16s are a no)
I wonder if that's because of previous poor experiences. From an H&S side of things there are ways round it, but it is more involved risk assessing for a child - and there will be no help from the school for this. But my own experience is that the younger placements are the least rewarding to the employer because it's vanishingly rare to get a child that shows any interest in being there. From the parent's point of view you'd have to all out to sell the child's enthusiasm to break through that.

Something to try is to take a drive around the industrial estates in the local area and note down the businesses you see. For every Big Employer there will be a dozen local smaller businesses supplying them - from nuts and fasteners, to workwear, to small engineering firms, etc. At 15 any employer is an opportunity to understand how businesses work and see the sort of jobs people do.

I am sure the experience is beneficial but is it worth to spend so much time and effort to enrol? The uptake of this program at my DC's school is very low. My feeling is better foucs on GCSE preparation at this time frame?

It comes under 5 and 6 on the Gatsby Benchmarks.

Providing meaningful encounters with employers and workplaces is valuable experience. Why are GCSEs important? - it's because they're a recognised currency for future educational and vocational opportunities.