Work Experience

Work Experience is an important aspect of the Key Stage 4 Curriculum. The Government, through its review of 14-19 provision, has articulated in 14-19: Opportunity and Excellence, a clear entitlement to a programme of work-related learning for this age group. Within this, work experience is an essential element, providing as it does an insight for young people into the day-to-day expectations of employees, their working practices and environments, and their rights and responsibilities. It also contributes to the development of students’ enterprise capability, including the ability to handle uncertainty and respond positively to change, to create and implement new ideas and ways of doing things, to make reasonable risk/reward assessments and to act upon them in their personal and working lives.

“… a placement on an employer’s premises in which a pupil carries out a range of duties, more or less as would an employee, but with an emphasis on the learning aspects of the experience.”DfES 1997

The work experience programme provides students with the opportunity to see the world of work at first hand, to make comparisons with school life, to acquire and develop Key Skills, to sample a wide range of tasks possible under the supervision of experienced workers and to make a small contribution to the work of a team.

Work Experience is an essential time for year 10 students to explore their future working environment for two weeks. The student, though the work experience programme faces the opportunity to explore possible career aspirations, take a hobby a step further or experience an industry that has never been thought about before.

The three main aims of the work experience process are:

To aid the student’s personal development in gaining self-confidence and self-reliance, to extend communications skills with adults, learn to respond positively to criticism and discipline, to recognise the need for transference of skills and the need to be flexible throughout working life, to develop organisational skills, to acquire some of the decision-making skills required in a working environment, to acquire positive attitudes to work i.e. co-operation and punctuality and to develop skills of listening, asking, observing and contributing.

To develop interpersonal skills by learning to appreciate the value and necessity of teamwork, to experience the relationships of people working together for a common goal, to appreciate the importance of sensitivity e.g. tact, tolerance, patience and courtesy in relationships, to develop awareness that other people’s feelings and thoughts may be different to one’s own.

To develop and apply skills by being given an opportunity to demonstrate relevance of school work to the wider world, to offer situations to acquire, develop and apply the Key Skills.

Miss D Halliday

Work Related Learning and Work Experience Coordinator

Parental Consent Form

Work Experience Statements Own Find Placement Form

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