Work experience in year 10/11
In most local schools everyone has two weeks of work experience during year 10 or 11. Work experience helps you:
- Learn about the world of work, understand how companies are organised and how life at work differs from that at school/college
- See how things you have learned in the classroom are applied in practice
- Understand how your skills and knowledge can be put to use in the workplace
- Begin to find out what starting work might feel like and to prepare for the move between education and employment
- Have a chance to work with people of all ages
Some year 10/11 students have extra work experience. For some people this is because they are taking a course at school or college where experience of work forms an important part. For others, parents and school might agree that extra work experience will help you get a job when you finish school or college.
Work experience post-16
Work experience might also be part of your post-16 course, especially if you are taking a vocational course, where work experience is often essential. Often you do one or two days work experience each week for several terms. This gives you a good chance to get more experience of the sort of work you are planning to do. Your tutor will tell you more about the work experience for people on your course.
Experience from paid work
Many people get part-time jobs. Often they are in retail or catering. Whether or not your part-time job is linked to the sort of work you want to do full-time, you can get really useful experience. Team work, planning, getting on with people of all ages, dealing with difficult customers... all these are skills which you can build up in a part-time job.
