Work Experience for Year 10 students on Friday 12th July 2024.

We are delighted to be able to once again offer our students the opportunity to take part in a self-sourced placement, where they will be able to experience 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 development in work-related learning. The aim of this  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 schools 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 2024 and have mirrored our successful 2023 Programme.

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 for the future.

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 7^th June 2024, 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 12th July will also 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 this is 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, you could use Google or other similar websites to find out about organisations and businesses in the local area and contact them direct to ask if they can offer you any work experience for the selected day.
• Think creatively about other ways that you can get a ‘foot in the door’ to see first-hand what different jobs actually entail, such as 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.