After a five-year gap, the school re-introduced a week block work experience programme for all Year 10 students.  This was in response to changing employment patterns and the increasing important requirement for students to have good employability skills when they leave full time education.

Aims of Work Experience:

• For students to have enjoyable and rewarding placement
• To develop important employability skills
• To learn about workplace and labour market
• To develop confidence
• To help students make informed career decisions

How Does It Work?

All year 10 students will complete a one-week placement in the allocated week in March. Students may not do their placement at any other time. Please note this is a compulsory part of the curriculum for year 10, so all students have to find a placement. While the majority of students will be applying for placements in the local area it is possible to do it in other parts of the country providing the employer meets the required legal an insurance requirements.

Placements can be selected from a list provided by the school or students can find their own through family contacts, friends or your own initiative. Every placement has to be checked and approved by the school.

• The students will be required to complete an application process and the decision to accept lies with the employer.
• A launch assembly will be held in November to go through the whole process with the students.

How to find a placement

There are basically two ways to find a placement:

1. Use the list provided by the school.
2. Find you own placement – you may have a contact that is willing to offer you an opportunity, or you could simply apply to a business that isn’t on the database. If you are finding your own placement you must check with the employer that they have up-to-date Employer Liability Insurance. If the employer does not have this insurance you are not legally allowed to do the placement (even if the business is owned by a member of your family). Please be aware that certain jobs have legal age restrictions so check this with any potential employer first – they will know what you are legally allowed to do pre-16.

What happens next?

• There will be a short assembly to launch the programme and go through the aims
• You will then be asked to complete a selection form. 
• If you are selecting from the school list you will then be allocated one of the placements. The final step will be to send that employer an application form and then keep your fingers crossed that they say yes!
• If you have organised your own placement you will need to give us details of the business and the name of the person who has approved it. We will then sort out the paperwork.

You need to think carefully about it and make sure you are selecting placements that are suitable for you and will provide an enjoyable challenge. You might like to consider:

• A placement linked to a career you are interested in
• A placement linked to a particular strength or skill that you have
• Something different and more challenging from your part-time/holiday job