Work Experience

[ownedbySWD]

My dd's school has requested that students find their own work placemet for the Work Related Learning programme next year.

The programme is optional, but she is interested in doing it.

Do we just ask around?! What's the likelihood that random places of employment would accept a work placement? She's very artistic and loves languages.

maybe you need to explain, what is the "Work Related Programme"

Does your school give them time off on school days for WE?

Good question. I think it is quite open ended? The letter was vague.

The dates suggested are over the May half term break.

You put together a proper letter of application listing her skills and interests and what she could offer, and what she’d like to learn from them. You include how long the experience needs to be, and if there is a time limit. Will a tutor offer a reference if required?
Work experience is exactly that. Treat it like a job application and get her to do a bit of research before applying.

Thank you. Makes perfect sense!

Most museums have a 'work with us'/careers section you can contact to enquire about work experience for a year 10 pupil. The email or letter should be from your daughter and she can mention her passion for art and her hope to become an artist/a curator/ a critic/etc. What direction is her art taking her in?

DS1 did work experience last year at an animation studio, which he loved. Art and animation are his main interests. We approached via email or post 20 organisations (museums/art galleries/animation studios).

A good experience can be a lot of fun, DD ran free drop in craft classes at an art shop, using the stock.

The school will have to send a form to the employer once your DD has accepted a placement. Her form tutor will arrange this when the time comes.

Those sound like great opportunities!

She prefers pencil and pen drawing, mostly, but is enjoying learning new techniques in lessons.

I'm not much of an artist so am constantly impressed with what she comes up with!

We'll look over these suggestions together, thank you all. She's my PFB, obviously, so I have no.idea what I'm doing. :)

It can be quite difficult to arrange your own work pavement as often the placement needs to be assessed for health and safety and the workplace needs to identify a named person to act as a mentor, these are requirements in our area but I believe this may vary in different areas.
Also in our area these placements are carried out in term time and are mandatory.
Personal contacts are usually the best way to secure a placement, especially if your DD has a certain type of placement in mind. Charities can often welcome placements as well.Otherwise what happens, here at least, is that the school will arrange something which is often pretty rubbish and not necessarily anything that the child might actually be interested in.

I thought maybe "Work Related Learning programme " was some special scheme I hadn't heard of. Sounds like it's just "Work experience" like almost every other school does?

I've only had 2 teens go thru this, but seems like parents have to work hard to help get everything arranged. Try to get your kid to do everything they can, but after months of making contacts on her own, DD only got a place b/c I asked around a bit. DS did nothing to get a place so got nothing. The school support was small from one school & non-existent from the other.

Local govt, like county council can be good. What about a museum service placement? Better success rate than asking in private sector. Charities can be good, too.

There is zero support from school in finding.placements, so perhaps that's why they changed the name? On one hand.it.is frustrating, but.on the other I suppose it.lends a bit of flexibility in finding something she will enjoy.

Our DS's school stopped form work experience fortnight for Y9s but we found it relatively easy to arrange something for our DS over half term but I appreciate that not all parents are able to do so. I think it is great for teenagers to have some form of work experience and in my job (charity retail) I am always happy to offer work experience but sadly a lot of employers won't as it is 'too much faff'. I now take DoE students who are always looking for work experience.

We do have a community run cinema that take work placements. I think we'll use them if she can't find something that aligns more closely with her interests.

I take a lot of work experience students, I work in a profession where students need work experience to apply to uni - but I expect them to apply themselves, it’s competitive and we have way more students wanting placements than we have slots for. Any emails from parents on behalf of their children are ignored. I ask students to send a CV and covering email, even if they’re only 15.

So, I’d encourage your daughter to work this one out for herself - support her, but don’t do it for her.

I have had some amusing experiences with w/e students - many years ago I had a particularly useless one who showed no initiative or enthusiasm (even faking it would have helped) for what she was doing - at the 'de-brief' suggestion I asked her about how long term ambitions - 'to be a barrister or brain surgeon' was her reply . I often wonder what happened to her.

Another one we took on was the absolute opposite, full of enthusiasm, good ideas and so cheerful; and for the first time ever we were able to take on a paid 'Saturday job' and offered it to her.

Thank you for.that advice. Very helpful!!