Work Experience- is it worth it?

Every year about this time we are approached by schools and colleges who want to place students with us for anything from 3 days to 2 weeks for work experience. College students have been fine because they have already made a career choice.

School pupils are different matter.We currently have a fifteen year old for three days of work shadowing.

It's never the fascinating insight into TV production they are hoping for or the wonderful interested and energetic assistance we are hoping for. We explain how the business works and get them to help on various tasks but you can't let a 15 yr old loose on an 20K edit suite or camera especially when there are deadlines to be met.

I opened the door to this lad on the first morning with a cheery 'hello' and 'how are you?' - the reply? I'm tired  and this was at 9am.

It makes you wonder how these young people with that sort of approach & attitude are going to approach job interviews.

Perhaps next time we should just say NO to work experience. What's your experience ?

Absolutely I think it's worth it if only to give the students a wake up call to reality!

Patricia.

and there was me, trying to suggest to you that a government apprenticeship scheme was a good idea! 

Do you not get the the chance to 'interview' said work experience student? I guess not.

Too tired?!  I blame the parents, X-box, sex education in year 5 and the absolute scorn for not eating fruit and veg.

My elder son at 13 said to my wife... "why have you RUINED a perfectly good dinner with VEGETABLES!"

Hi Patricia.  My son is one of the 15 year olds currently on work experience and he is absolutely loving it.  He's working at a restaurant and we thought he'd be stuck in the kitchen washing dishes for two weeks.  But no - out front, dealing with customers, serving food and absolutely loving it.  I've never seen him so enthusiastic about anything.   So a big thumbs up from me.

PS  I think teenage boys are always tired at that time of the morning - it must be built into the genes!!

I think its a fab idea. Yes you get bad ones, but you also get good ones!

I done a work experience with a recruitment agency, and subsequently got offered a position with them when I finished school, and 14 years later, still in the industry 

We currently have a 15 year old girl in doing a Business Admin role for 2 weeks.  So far this week she has been in 3 days and then called in sick.

When she was here she worked so fast she was showing our Admin team up - as they work so slow to spread things out lol

Both my Daughters did work experience a few years ago, the eldest had wanted to be a vet all her life till she got a work placement at a vets, she hated it, it totally changed what she wanted to do, far better than years at college & uni then finding out it's not for you!

The other worked at a pet shop, which she loved, she is now training to be a vetanry nurse.

Day three and our chap finally started to come out his shell a bit although he did ask to finish early.

Perhaps that's the trouble-  three days is too short to get over the nerves.

Now,Paul, an apprenticeship would be very different I imagine as anyone involved should have made a career choice

and would be keen to learn.

To many employers the presence of a "workie" is at best and inconvenience and at worst and opportunity for exploitation. 

A week spent photocopying, filing or making tea while the employer tries to think up ways of keeping them occupied until it is time to send them back to school.

It does help when the student actually wants to be there and it is probably a good thing that the reality is as glamourous as they imagined, as was suggested previously, this opportunity can avoid costly mistakes down the line. I remember my W.E, a week at a local M&S store (don't know why - I never expressed an interest in retail) The store manager did their best to expose me to all the facets of store life and there were plenty of people on hand to delegate to. 

My experience on the other side came a couple of years ago when we had a young lad in the studio where I worked shadowing us for a couple of weeks, after we got past the initial reticence of teenage years, he showed himself to be a very competent team member and had the opportunity to actively contribute to live projects. The feedback we recieved was that his experience ranked much higher that many of his peer but it was a lot of work on our part and it was something that my (then) boss, was in no hurry to repeat. I would agree that 3 days isn't enough time to really get into it unless you have a structured programme and can spare the time to supervise fully.

Fast forward a couple of years and now that I am in a position where I am running a business of my own, I am keen to foster latent talent and offer a bit of real life experience in a way that I was never properly afforded me.  The current economic climate is a thoroughly crap world for young people to take their first step on the career ladder and I have spoken to a few exceptional young people recently who are displaying real entepreneurial talent and getting a jump start on their careers.

I think the apprentice route has to be the best way to invest in the future.

I get a few e-mails and letters from the local secondary schools in a very similar situation. Unfortunately to be registered, I've got to undergo a CRB and have HSE examine the premisis. Both of which cost me money. As much as I want to nuture talent in young people, I can't afford to do so being so tangled up in regulations.

I didn't even approach my insurance company to cover a 15 year old doing soldering. I think it might jump up to a few thousand!