Work Experience - Information
Work Experience provides all students with an authentic introduction to the world of work, giving them the opportunity to gain and develop valuable qualities and skills, as well as gaining first-hand experience of a work environment.
Introduction
An important element of our Careers Education programme is ‘Work Experience’
Each year, all of our Year 10 students participate in a week of Work Experience during the Summer term. This provides them with an authentic introduction to the world of work, giving them the opportunity to gain and develop valuable qualities and skills, as well as gaining first-hand experience of a work environment.
The actual experience they gain however, is much more than the week of work, as each student will seek and apply for their own placement (with support, guidance and encouragement from the school). In this way they learn how to write and communicate with employers, how to present themselves, as well as the importance of resilience and self-reflection if they are unsuccessful with their initial approaches.
Planning your Work Experience placement
Before organising your work experience, please think carefully about:
What area of the workplace you are interested in i.e. agriculture, retail, animals etc.
Where you can travel to i.e. Taunton, Exeter, Tiverton etc, remembering that in most cases you will not be working school hours.
Where will you get a valuable experience of working conditions?
Some businesses will put together interesting timetables but other businesses are limited in the activities that they will be able to offer students.
Who will you be working with – it is not advisable to be working with only one adult.
Most other schools have the same work experience week as us, therefore, there is a lot of competition for the placements that are available, especially placements like vets and specialist businesses like graphic designers etc.
All placements must have Employer’s Liability Insurance and Public Liability Insurance
All placements will have Health and Safety checked
Virtual Work Experience
Flexible and free work experience programmes that students can access. There are many different experiences from Aviation & Aerospace to Engineering and everything in between!
Please follow the links below:
Arranging Work Experience
Students are responsible for arranging their own work experience with the help and guidance of the careers advisor and family. At the start of Year 10:
All Year 10 students are sent a Unifrog login invitation to their school email address and will have the opportunity to log in to Unifrog during tutor time.
Once a placement is found, students should complete the work experience form (see Key Information) and hand in to their tutor.
Students will then input this information into Unifrog which will initiate the administration process
For further information about Unifrog and work experience, please go here.