Every year thousands of students flood business to find a work experience placement. A work placement is your opportunity to spend a period of time outside the classroom, learning about a particular job or area of work. It is usual for year 10-11 and lasts from 1-3 weeks.
During your placement, you'll be able to find out what skills employers look for when they're hiring someone to fill a job vacancy. You will also get the chance to develop your self-confidence and communication skills. This will help you to work better with other people in further or higher education, as well as in your future career.
Burlington Danes Academy work experience co-ordinator Miss Davies says 'Work experience is a very important topic when it comes to interviews for college and university and it is vital that you pick a place where you want to do it and you know you will enjoy.'
As a student who is currently looking for a work experience placement, I think 'Work experience can be useful for a young person to see the environment of the workforce, and the difficulty they face to get a placement whereby they will enjoy as many jobs are very competitive, however a lot of children will not act with maturity during there placement as they don't believe they are not being enriching with knowledge.'
When questioned over the matter Farhana Shaheedi, a peer, said ‘I think work experience is good although its not an actual job it still does give us a glimpse of work life and when we actually embark to the real world of work, then we do know the expectations and the difference between the work life and the school life.’ To conclude, work experience can be highly beneficial if a person is determined to put all their effort into getting the job done effectively. This can be done by getting over the fact that excellent placements will presumably say 'no' and being grateful with the placement they have received. Having said that a continuation of 'no' from companies, business and organisations will dishearten a person. Therefore that is why I believe the more stable and confident students should be given the opportunity to find their own placement and the rest of the students should be given a little helping hand to help them achieve a placement suitable to them.
Overall, work experience can lead to a lot of great occupational opportunities in the future.
