Work experience

[Shadow]

I'm also finding the comments on here interesting.

This is my first time dealing with anything like work experience other than students we occasionally had on placement who were there more to study what we did and how the organisation worked as opposed to doing any actual work as such.

Well-daughter was driven to "the workplace" this morning-at least I know she got there on time for her first day

No doubt I'll get her impressions tonight when she gets home

[Fairscup]

I hope it all goes well Shads. The impressions made upon your daughter today will be something she carries with her all her life. Good or bad.

[Shadow]

Thanks Fairs

My stomachs in knots here worrying about it-fingers crossed all goes ok at the very least

[Ann1]

Well done Fairs I'm glad someone is giving the youngsters a chance! That's another thing that gets me, everyone wants paper qualifications, I'd take common sense any day over a fistful of degrees!!!

[Shadow]

Well-it couldnt have gone much worse

Signs every where warning people that there was an outbreak of sickness and diahorrea and you entered at your own risk to start off with.Staff unaware that the two kids on work experience were coming-person who arranged it was on A/L and had neglected to tell anyone they were coming so there followed a debate about whether the two kids should even be allowed in because of the outbreak.

They were not allowed to do a thing-couldnt even make residents asking for a drink a cup of tea due to H&S.So she ended up sitting all day in the lounge.Played snap with some-one about twenty five times-no one was free to answer the questions she asked and one care worker suggested she wrote "nothing" in her diary she was keeping of what she had done.It was also suggested they didnt bother to come back for the rest of the week as there was nothing to do and it was a waste of time really.

Welcome to the workplace eh

Marvellous

So right now shes thinking of just going into school tomorrow.

As my dad said-first experience of work is teaching her to sit on her arse and do nowt.

[Deleted]

Shads I am gutted for your daughter................

I would encourage her to go back again and write down not what she does, but her impressions of the place. Put the whole thing together at the end of the week once her adventure is over. Hand it in to whoever organises these things through the school and then think seriously about becoming a journalist!

CWL

[Shadow]

I'm hoping she will go back tomorrow CWL-even if its just to see if things are just as bad-and I really want her to give a full report on what happened to the relevant people also

There seems little point in this particular place being used as part work of a work experience process if this is the best they can offer.

I find it particularly annoying because both Mr Shads and I have done stints at one time and another in care homes years back-and theres alot more to it than playing card games with residents-it can be hard work and I would have liked her to see the complexities of caring for elderly residents-she saw virtually nothing other than a group of people sitting listening to music all day long.

Such a wasted opportunity and Im just grateful shes seen how this type of work can be rewarding and satisfying after her visits to her dads old workplace-co-incidently one minute away from the place she was today

[Deleted]

The thing that annoys me the most about this is that the other child who attended may have nothing by which to compare the experience. So unlike your daughter who has seen what another establishment can be like, could well be put off entering a caring profession.

Paying lip service to something like this is IMO not only an insult to the two children, but the very profession in which these people are employed.

Rant over.............

CWL

[Shadow]

I wonder if the places are actually checked to see what they can deliver to young people or if its just a case of filling quotas.

I'm also wondering what the incentive is to businesses etc who agree to take pupils on for work experience?

CWL-if you dont mind me asking-who actually funds the places do you know-and whats in it-if anything-for the companies that accept the students?

Im just finding it hard to understand why the place my daughter is at agreed to it if its all so hard and pointless for them?

[Deleted]

Children can learn allot from work experience, but all shads daughter's learned is people don't give a %&+@

[Jazz]

Very sorry to hear about your daughter's experience, Shadow. It doesn't give much encouragement to young people when they meet this sort of apathy in the "adult" world.

[supergob]

Is it no longer acceptable to disagree on this forum, or has everyone automatically fall into the agreeing mode of whatever you say Shadow, I for one can think of nothing worse than going fresh into the workplace without the slightest idea of what its like out there in the real world. I left school at 15 and immediately started work for a local Gateshead Paper as an apprentice compositor and I was certainly the but of every prank going which ended one day when things got out of hand and certain areas of my anatomy were subjected to printers ink. Anyone in the print industry will tell you how hard it is to remove.

I left in a hurry, determined never to return, but after the thought of facing up to my Mother, who on her best days was worse than I would ever encounter in the workplace, I simply returned the next day and marched into the Editors office, demanded that he took action against those responsible. When he called them into the office, I was told that it was something all apprentices had to face and that I was the first to complain. I simply explained that it was not the act that I was complaining about, or even the assault, but the fact that I had worked hard for a number of weeks delivering papers and meat for the local butcher to buy work clothes and in one stupid act thy had ruined them. The clothes were replaced and the practice of daubing apprentices stopped.

Just as an adage, I received 29/- or £1-50, I earned more delivering papers, but it was a lesson I learned and practiced all my life, that was never to be intimidated and always know your value. If this can be leaned from work experience, then it is well worth the bother, also as a Parent who has went through this with two children, it was easily resolved by a visit to the workplace before they started and make it known that your child is there to learn and not be used as an unpaid skivvy. In both cases I questioned my children, as did my Wife and in both cases we were kept informed of their progress. So perhaps, rather than post comments on here, I suggest if you are that worried then meet with the home. Incidentally, I would personally never allow my child to assist in care homes, we all know what can happen in some of these places, there are far better places to gain work experience

[Roma]

There are some very good care homes, not all of them have bad names.

[Jazz]

As a bit of an "aside" to this thread I recall being called in to the office of one of the "bosses" in the small Newcastle quayside shipbrokers that I had just started working in on leaving school at 15. The "boss", a horrible man, told me that I was wearing a checked shirt and that I shouldn't wear it again.....a plain shirt was to be worn in the future....all said in a curt, unfriendly manner.
Today, I would have told him to "eff off" as would most youngsters today. And quite right too!
But, again, a different time, different world.

[Deleted]

Apr 11, 2011 21:58:21 GMT 1 Shadow said:

I wonder if the places are actually checked to see what they can deliver to young people or if its just a case of filling quotas.

I'm also wondering what the incentive is to businesses etc who agree to take pupils on for work experience?

CWL-if you dont mind me asking-who actually funds the places do you know-and whats in it-if anything-for the companies that accept the students?

Im just finding it hard to understand why the place my daughter is at agreed to it if its all so hard and pointless for them?

My own organisation was approached by several LEA's asking if they would be willing to participate in the work placement scheme. As I managed twelve sites across the country it was not exactly straight forward. Often dealing with representatives from education departments and schools who each did things differently.

Fortunately based upon those experiences, myself and some HR colleagues developed a single process for ensuring it became minimum hassle. Irrespective of location they had to comply with our process not the other way around. No idea what funding if any was involved from the education side.

As an organistaion we just tried to make it as meaningful as possible for the children involved. That in itself came to create an issue as it became known we offered a very good placement so demand often exceeded our capability to take all those who wanted to come. That was also the case with University Students looking for a placement. Although unlike the work placement kids they were offered a one year fixed contract with a salary.

The major benefits were that the organisation got to see potential employees before they had finished full time education or went on to further education or University. At the second stage with Students it was an opportunity to take advantage of people with developing skill sets without the added expense of training them from scratch. Any excellent Students could also be assessed or approached directly as part of a proactive recruitment policy, bit like what happens with Fairsy.

Have to agree with SG when it comes to checking out arrangements beforehand. If left up to the schools it generally resulted in chaos with kids turning up out of the blue or not at all. Although I would say work placement is nothing like starting an apprenticeship, including any major rights of passage. Which in my own case came at the end, not the beginning of the journey!

CWL