I have found that work experience helps to add meaning to your school studies and enables you to clearly distinguish which qualifications will become useful in later life.
Work experience can also provide opportunities for students to gain an insight into business practises and processes which many students will have never experienced. Similarly it enables you to find out how businesses are organised and run.
Another valuable lesson gained from work experience is learning the position of management within a company. It is important to know who is boss and to appreciate employer expectations. This enables the business to run smoothly and to avoid conflicts.
Although there are clearly many advantages of work experience upon completing my two week placement I can see many disadvantages of work experience.
As a year ten pupil in the work place it becomes very obvious to members of staff that you are younger and less experienced than themselves. Rather than treat you as an equal many members of staff see you as inferior and so give you jobs which, perhaps, they may not like to do themselves. During the course of the work experience period I found myself doing a lot of running around after people which I did not mind unless I was very busy with another task they had set me and then I was expected to drop everything and do something else.
Similarly they try to talk down to you and make you feel as if their job is a lot more difficult than it actually is. As a student on work experience I found myself constantly having to prove myself to my boss and it was not until later on in the placement when it became apparent to them that their knowledge was not as vastly different to mine as they had thought and that I was more than capable of doing anything that they threw at me.
Another down side to work experience is that the hours are much longer than our school hours and so, to some students who have less drive to carry on working diligently throughout the day, this may come as a great shock. I think that if the longer hours were gradually introduced then it would not be as strenuous and would help to sustain the concentration of the students.
I found that customers too looked down upon me and thought that because they were older they knew more than certain products than me but I soon found that I was able to show them how great my knowledge on many audio engineering and sound recording products was and it gave me a sense of achievement to know that I could teach, even adults, many things.
Having now completed my work experience I feel that the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. I have learnt a lot about how businesses operate and how I can link my studies to a future career. The most frequent and important skill I have used is the ability to work together with people and show an interest in everybody’s point of view, even if I strongly disagree.
I have realised just how different school life is to work. At school there are many teachers to help guide you through you education but at work you are given a task and expected to get on with it. I found that with certain tasks that I did not enjoy it was best to keep my feelings inside rather than voice them to my boss who would then find more of the same work for me to do.
I found that I got great satisfaction from helping customers who were having problems with products and that if I was able to help I would certainly try my best.
I would advise the school to continue with the work experience program as I feel that I have learnt a great deal and have matured greatly as a result of working with other adults. This scheme gives students a great opportunity to get a taste of life outside of school and encourages them to work hard and get an enjoyable job which would not become tedious after working day-in-day-out for the rest of their lives.
