Year 11 Work Experience - compulsory?

[malovitt]

Sorry, don't know much about it but I really don't see the point of my son doing work experience next term. He could really do with those two weeks to revise as he's falling a bit behind in a few of his important subjects.

I'm willing to get a formal tutor in for the fortnight - what would the school say?

Sorry, Year 10 work experience, not 11.

I think you need to make an appointment with his form tutor asap to discuss all your concerns. If he is really falling behind, a couple of weeks tutoring instead of work experience may not be enough to fix the problem. FWIW my dc enjoyed their work experience and found it useful.

They do it in Yr11 at my school. In fact, they've just finished it, just before Christmas.

There were about a dozen or so students, that didn't get work experience for whatever reason, but they were expected to be in school and were assigned partly to faculty areas to help out with the lower school and partly to catch up on areas they were struggling in.

It might be he case, that your DS can do that too.

I do think work experience is important though. It doesn't matter whether the experience is in something they intend to persue as a career or job, it just gives them a sense of importance and makes them realise that it's a tough world out there and they need to make an effort if they are going to get anywhere. It helps them to grow up a bit, in some cases.

We were told it was compulsory.

Work experience is often a huge motivator for lazy yr10/11 students who haven't realised what it's all about. Doing W/E can give them a real insight into the employment world: often makes them see what boring menial jobs there are around the place for people with no skills/qualifications!

Work experiance is really good for young people. Some schools do it in year 10 and others in year 11. Some sort of work experiance is compulsary even if they just end up doing something in school. DD2 didn't get work experiance outside school but she helped in the Drama deprtment at her school and helped in year 7 and 8 lessons.

I think it would be a huge shame for you to allow your child to miss work experience. It gives them a chance to view the world beyond school and can be very informative, even if all it does is show them what they don't want to do. It would look strange on CVS and college applications for him not to have done it.

It is not compulsory but really valuable. Everyone else will be doing it, and he would have to go into school by himself to sit in the library if he doesn't.

At my DC's school, they do it in Year 11 after the GCSEs. It means that it doesn't interfere with the curriculum, but also that only about half the students actually do it.

I understand your concerns completely.

Dd did it earlier this year and originally got her first choice, which was great. However about 3 weeks beforehand they pulled out and she was offered a week long placement in either a local nursery school or a primary school. I had major objections to this as it is the only experience she has had in a workplace and has no intentions in going into education as a career. I was quite happy to not do this and stay at home to study instead.

However she was given a place in a local manufacturer's where she had a fantastic time. She was doing admin/reception/finacial/ general duties. In fact she came away with the best 'reference' from her year, and they had a whip round for her to thank her for her hard work

I am a year 11 form tutor so my group did work experience last year and it was a great reality check and motivator for them.

I think it all depends on on how useful/good the experience is.
My experience is that the child gets stuck doing boring ,routine ,tasks or nothing at all - just sitting there.
Yes I know that boring ,routine tasks are part of work and life but the work experience must balance these with some insight into what else goes on.
Otherwise ,the work experience is not a huge motivator but a real turn off .
And please no arguments about teaching them to get up ,work all day etc.
Plenty of kids ,mine included ,get up at 6.30 ,leave at 7.15 and aren't back until 5.30 ,every week day for school.
Personally I think 2 weeks intensive study at home ( think of the travelling time saved ) would be better spent.

Perhaps, as others have said, it's a wake-up call. Doing well with your own education requires significant effort and being actively engaged on the part of the student as well as the teacher.
So if they can't be bothered, they are stuck with fewer choices and may end up doing something boring or monotonous, or being kept by parents.
As a student, from 16 to 22, I did a range of mind-numbingly boring part-time jobs for income. And a few that weren't.
It motivated me to work at college and uni so that wasn't the rest of my life I was foreseeing. Because my parents wouldn't have funded me after 18, whether I felt unmotivated or not.
OP why is your son falling behind in his schoolwork?

violetqueen, your experience is the opposite of mine.

I've only had one child do work experience so far, but it was excellent for him. He chose an accountancy firm (it was A on the list of industries), and his experience involved doing a different part of the business each day. It was a well-thought-out programme, and definitely did not involve any grunge tasks or slave labour. They also told DS that he added value (not sure if true, but he was chuffed).

If your schools or Educational Business Partnership is offering rubbish placements, they need to know about it.

I found my Year 10 work experience (when I was placed in a primary school) a complete waste of my time and theirs. I didn't and never have wanted to be a teacher and at the age of 15 intensly disliked 6 year old children. We went where we were put and the whole thing was stupid.

When we did work experience again in Year 13 I made my own arrangements and wrote to our local MP who got me 2 weeks in the Cabinet Office. Much more interesting.