Work Experience for Year 10 students on Friday 7th July 2023.

We are delighted to be able to again, as we did in 2022, offer our students the opportunity to take part in a self-sourced placement, experiencing a day in the working world.

All students in Year 10 are expected to take part in the work experience day as part of their work-related learning education. The aim is to provide an ‘experience of work’ rather than specific job training.

The traditional work experience model has significantly changed since the pandemic with various sectors embracing work from home or hybrid models and In addition to this there have been significant changes to the mechanisms that allow school’s to support students in sourcing work experience placements for them.

As a school we do value the insights gained from experiences into the world of work and as such we have pursued our own alternative means to enable this to take place in 2023.

This year, students together with parents & carers support are required to source their own placement. This could take a number of pathways, such as spending the working day with parents or carers in their line of work, via family friends and contacts or by approaching local businesses & organisations.

Students will then have the opportunity to work with an employer for one day, on an unpaid basis, to find out more about industry and the workplace. They can observe and work alongside people as they go about their daily tasks and experience the disciplines of the workplace, such as attendance, time-keeping, regulations and the importance of teamwork, especially in a job or area of work that they might be interested in.

The Work Experience Placement Form, shown below needs to be fully completed by the student, parent/carer and the employer, and then returned to the school by Friday 9^th June 2023, together with a copy of the Employers Liability Insurance document which is essential for placements.

Please return all forms by email to workexperience@worthinghigh.net or students can return completed documents to Mr Fisher in the Careers Office (B1b) at school.

Friday 7th July will be our whole school Focus Day 3.

How could you find placements?

• Start with your own immediate network of contacts – your family, friends and neighbours, your parents’ friends, your friends’ parents, your parents’ work colleagues. Anyone you know may hold the key to a fascinating placement for you.
• Find out what jobs they do and ask if they could arrange for you to spend a day or gaining an insight into their day-to-day work.
• Be sure to let people know what you’re hoping to gain from the time spent in their workplace (i.e. your aims regarding what you want to learn about, see and do, so they understand what you’re looking for; however, be prepared to be flexible and adaptable if they suggest something different to what you originally envisaged.
• While it may be tempting to go for ‘the easier option’, such as spending the day with your parents in their workplaces, if it’s not an area of work that you’re curious about, push yourself to find something else that is more likely to appeal to you and that matches your interests and longer term aspirations.
• If you have a specific industry sector in mind, but no obvious contacts within that sector, Google it to find out about organisations in the local area and contact them direct to ask if they can offer you any work experience for the one day.
• Think creatively about other ways that you can get a ‘foot in the door’ to see first-hand what different jobs actually entail, for example:                                                                        Shadowing someone for a day (where you observe people going about their work but without actually assisting) requires minimal organisation and creates minimal disruption, but can give you a good insight into the rewards and pressures of a particular job.