YEUK Ambassador Alex Knight, London
We all remember work experience, walking into form as a year 10 or 11 asking people where they’d be spending the next week.
“I’m going to the local vets, what about you?”
“Oh, I’m working at a shop in town!”
There were two schools of thought, those that wanted a weekend job and picked placements based on their likelihood of employment and then those who wanted to gain experience in their burning quest for a certain vocation.
Me personally, I spent my week working in a music shop that specialised in drum equipment. How would I rate my experience? Well, it was one of the best weeks of my entire school life. Its usefulness a totally different story, as it has very little if nothing to do with my career choices today.
This brings me to the basis of this article, the huge flaw in today’s work experience programme…
Hardly anyone knows what they want to do with their life at 15 or 16.
Therefore, I believe that there should be an overhaul of the programme to form a much different experience for young people.
As opposed to a single week working in the same experience, once in their whole school life, I believe that the programme should be more broken up.
Thus, that you spend 3 days every year for 3 or 4 years at a different establishment, starting in year 10 and finishing in year 12 or maybe even year 13, allowing students to try different vocations. It would also mean that before a student submits their UCAS application or leaves the education system, they find a flavour of the world and locate exactly what a certain job really entails and whether it’s what they want to pursue.
It means that those leaving the education system, are less likely to struggle for work because they will have experience of the working world, where they can gain the skills that employers are looking for and so even if they disengage from their studies, they have a strong CV.
I’m also of the belief that when you find out what it is you really want to do, then you put a refreshed and much higher ethic into your work. I certainly can vouch for that, as I floated through sixth form under a cloud of uncertainty, until journalism jumped out, managing to finish my school years and make it to university.
My final belief about this proposed method is that more than anything, it levels the playing field. By this, I mean that the grades you achieve don’t always reflected how hard you work and by giving vocational options it levels things between the academic and vocational learners.
While it may seem a radical change, students need something new and aren’t happy with the current careers and work experience programmes. The Association of Colleges found that young people wanted “more detailed, hands-on careers guidance, including information on what jobs actually involve, as well as “have-a-go” experiences” showing the desire for more experience in the workplace.
In turn, further research by the AoC suggested that teachers may be “struggling” to keep up with the latest trends in the job markets. Therefore, leaving work experience programmes in the hands of schools may not be the best idea. I think that a standardised national programme run by people within business, who have knowledge of industry would massively increase its usefulness and make sure that the ever changing skills desired by employers is reflected in that generations’ work experience.
Thus, whilst not guaranteeing that it would find a student’s definite career path, it would certainly give them a more detailed experience of what work and specifically a particular career is all about. Thus, leaving students much better informed when it comes to making life’s first big decision… just what is it that I want to be when I grow up?
