Schools and learning

Helping your child to get work experience

Work experience lets a young person get an insight into what it is like to do a particular job and enables them to decide whether they wish to pursue it as a career when they leave school.

Work experience is unpaid and generally runs for a 2 week-period, to be taken at some point in the last two years of compulsory schooling (Years 10 and 11). The DfES website has statistics showing that 98% of students undertake a work experience placement each year.

It is up to your child's school to work with employers to ensure that the work experience undertaken by their pupils will benefit them.
A teacher will generally have the responsibility of organising the placements and liaising with the different employers involved in the programme. The aims and objectives of the work experience are based on 5 curriculum areas:

• Development of students' key skills and therefore, their employability;
• Career education and guidance
• Vocational courses, including the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) and National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) programmes;
• Personal and Social Education;
• National Curriculum and other subjects.

It is important for the school to keep you informed of what your child is expected to gain from their work experience placement. If you have any queries or concerns about what your child is doing for work experience, please contact your child's school.