Work experience

 

By law you must be given the chance to do some kind of work experience in Year 10 or 11. Sometimes, being in care means you miss out. you might have been moving school, for example. Check with your designated teacher when work experience happens at your school. If you think you've missed it, speak up. Mention it to your social worker or designated teacher and make sure it's brought up when your Personal Education Plan is reviewed.

 

 

What if I don't like where I go?

Work experience is supposed to help you get a flavour of the real world. The cut 'n' thrust of life spent making a buck and cutting deals. It's meant to be a window into your future career.

Too many times, it's actually more like a week spent eating soggy packed lunches in a strange canteen, staring at middle-aged people. If you've seen the episode of The Inbetweeners where Will ends up working at a local garage, you know what we're talking about.

If this happens to you (you're placed somewhere of no interest to you), don't feel you have to put up with it.

Your school will have a teacher in charge of managing all the placements. Speak to him or her and tell them what's wrong. They should do all they can to improve things for you and to make it a valuable experience rather than a wasted one.

 
 

Work experience is a great way to get a taste for what you might want to do once you leave school

 

 

 

"Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. It may feel like you're getting nowhere at first but don't give up. I wrote hundreds of letters but I got in somewhere. You can do it."

Greg, 21

 
 

Greg's story

Work experience helped Greg get his dream job as a News assistant at Channel 5.

True stories of work exprerience 

Watch and read about how getting some work experience has helped to turn around these young people's lives.

Explore different jobs

Have a browse through all the different jobs in the job centre section of this site to see what sort of work experience you might like to do

Career matcher game 

If you're still not sure what you might like, play the career matcher game to give you some ideas

 
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