Work Experience
10 Reasons to complete work experience:
- Research has shown young people are more likely to be successful in their job hunt if they have done some good work experience
- If you haven’t got a clue what career you want to do work experience is a perfect way to sample all the career options out there. It’s a way of exploring different jobs without actually committing to anything. Finding out you don’t like or don’t suit a particular job or working environment is just as valuable as confirming your aspirations.
- It’s the best way to get a real sense of your chosen industry. You’ll get to speak to employees and ask them questions. You’ll then be able to make informed choices
- Doing work experience shows passion and interest.
- Work placements can increase motivation and effort, they can provide a real goal and realise ambition
- You can gain the skills to thrive in the work place, in a non-threatening situation, you can learn the do’s and don’ts of employment
- It’ll help you identify your own skills and perhaps even highlight the areas that you might want to work on
- You might secure your own job – part-time, or that dream apprenticeship.
- You will be starting to build a valuable bank of contacts for when you are ready to gain serious employment
- You get to enhance your CV with experiences beyond school, something that will really make you stand out among your peers
[source: adapted from allaboutcareers.com]
Year 10 work experience really is the chance to put all of the learning from Build my Skills into action. It is a chance for students to start thinking about where they want to be after year 11 and further.