Work Experience Students...

[Stevie Wonder]

I'm going to be taking a couple of students from a local high school on work experience for a one week placement.

I would like to give them a good overall view and experience of the business, making sure they're not bored and not put off by working life!!

Has anybody taken on placements of this sort in the past?

Does anybody have any ideas as to how to offer a good placement?

 

[B&H Digital]

From experience in the past, students normally like to be at a work placement where they can go back to their mates and say "Woah, work let me do this today!" - make it as exciting as possible, whilst ensuring they know work won't be all fun and games.

Try to give them some important duties every now and then

 

[johnnysheffield]

Give them individual responsibilities and as varied a role as possible that keeps them interested. Tasks for them to research what your competitors are doing (if possible) is always a good one. Also might be telling you how to suck eggs but have the talk about mobile phone use etc during work time early on.

 

[Jeff FV]

Way back in the day (how frightening - about 25 years ago!) I did a week's work experience in the local baby food factory.

As an impressionable teenager, it was the most useful week of my life - made me realise that I didn't want 'a dead end job in my dead end town' and served as a great motivator to get on with my school studies and flee!

(funnily enough, I now live in town 5 miles from where I grew up and our next house move would be back to my 'home' town, so it can't have been that bad! Glad, though, that I've been around a bit (both UK & overseas) in between!)

Sorry OP - probably not much help, but it got me reminiscing!

Jeff

 

[MichaelBloom]

What kind of business do you have?

 

[Stevie Wonder]

Thanks for your all replies!

'MichaelBloom'; I have a retail showroom, selling mainly bathroom tiles

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

We have taken several school children on work experience (as well as other similar schemes such as exchanges with students fron France which was excellent) with varying results. In my experience, if the student asks to work with you it will give better results than the school finding you and suggesting you to work experience students.

You cannot do much with them in a week and I have offered ones that I have deemed a success holiday jobs. Unless the student expresses a wish to work in a particular area of your business, I would give them a day each in such things as customer relations (serving customers), stock room work, paperwork, going out with fitters (if you do this), etc. (You know better than anyone else what areas your business works in). If, as the week progresses, a student shows a particular aptitude or interest in one area, he/she can spend the rest of the week there.

Barrie

 

[Stevie Wonder]

We have taken several school children on work experience (as well as other similar schemes such as exchanges with students fron France which was excellent) with varying results. In my experience, if the student asks to work with you it will give better results than the school finding you and suggesting you to work experience students.

You cannot do much with them in a week and I have offered ones that I have deemed a success holiday jobs. Unless the student expresses a wish to work in a particular area of your business, I would give them a day each in such things as customer relations (serving customers), stock room work, paperwork, going out with fitters (if you do this), etc. (You know better than anyone else what areas your business works in). If, as the week progresses, a student shows a particular aptitude or interest in one area, he/she can spend the rest of the week there.

Barrie

That's exactly what I had in mind! This approach will stop them from getting bored and offer a variety of experience I hope... Thanks!

 

[jberlin]

From my experiance students will either love lots of responsibilty or will only be there because their school has made them. Either way will probably become apparent on day one! Well worth doing though as most kids are pretty eager to impress.