I guess you don't really want a job, do you?

[Margo]

They still do the work experience thing, and did when I was in school (further back into the dark ages than you) but it just work experience. I haven't (either as an employer or when I was a school) come across the situation where you had to apply and got feedback. It tended more to be either kids finding a place themselves (with the help of their personal or family contacts) plus he school contacting local business and then allocating he placements to the kids who had not found their own, based on the kids interests etc.

One of our local school does a day of mock interviews etc - they approached us to see whether our Manager would be able to go; they try to get people from local businesses to do the interviews and give feedback. Unfortuantely whoever organises changes 2 years ago and the current person is  very bad at it .
The years we did it, they would contact us about 2 months ahead of time, tell us the 2 days they were planing to do their 'preparing for work' event and ask whether we could help out, and if so, for which blocks (they divided it up into half days, so you could sign up for a half day, or a full day, or 2 half days). They would also then send out the paperwork (Application letters, timetables for interviews, individual and group feedback, and details of things such as parking, who would meet you etc. about a week before the event) these last two years we have been contacted about 7-10 days before the event, asked to commit to a full day (preferably 2 full days) and in one case, the letter did not even have a specific person's name or contact details, it was a generic one from "X school"   So we haven't been involved, because at that short notice, it isn't practical.  From conversations with other local businesses we are not the only ones.
When we declined, we did say, both times, that we would like to be able to help but it is too short notice, and the second time we also put that that we had found it easier to help in the past, as taking half a day out of the office is more manageable than giving up a full day.

The way you did the work experience sounds good as a way of learning how to apply, although i does need extra input from the businesses concerned.

[Free Range Hippy Chick]

I didn't do work experience when I was at school but I met it from the other end and it was a flipping nuisance. My MD 'gave' me the WE student because he wanted his company to have a good standing in the community. The student couldn't go and work in the factory because no experience/no qualifications/no skills/no time for somebody to teach him how to use highly dangerous cutting equipment. It was a month's training for a new employee; they couldn't do anything useful in a week. They gave him to me, because hey, Free Range Hippy Chick does all that computer work, and school kids all know about computers, right?

So thanks, the auditors are coming in ten days, I'm trying to complete the year end, and I've got to babysit. I have no idea what the MD thought I was going to give this child to do. Possibly he did know about computers; he knew nothing whatsoever about double entry book-keeping, financial management, corporation tax or company law. Most of my work was confidential, so even if I could have said 'I need a spreadsheet to do this' - and you know, year end, experienced accountant, already constructed my spreadsheets - I couldn't have given him any data to put in it. I needed a day to do the payroll - I can just imagine how it would have gone down with the workforce if I'd given him the data input of that. The poor puppy ended up with a week of mostly photocopying and filing and even then I kept snatching back things that were sensitive and confidential. I managed one day of doing the Health and Safety Audit and letting him do (under my eye) the bits that didn't require specialist knowledge, but... I think he input a batch of purchase invoices, but somebody had to code them for him.

Both the Elder and the Younger Chick have done work experience but it was a real struggle to find anywhere to take them. The Elder Chick also did 'Executive Shadowing'. I don't think we'll be able to find a placement for the Younger Chick. The school/college doesn't find places - you have to do it yourself - and you're not supposed to go to Mum or Dad's company. Well, we couldn't do that anyway: DH works for a government department, all confidential data, and I'm self employed. But at the last parents' night, school staff were admitting that the work experience thing is falling through now because so many companies have paid off so many staff that they can't afford to carry a passenger, even an unpaid passenger, even only for a week. If you've got the student in your office, it means that a paid member of staff is basically on nursery duties and not getting on with their own work.

The other issue is the health and safety and the insurance. There's most of a day's induction in most workplaces - where are the fire exits, do you know the difference between red fire extinguishers and black ones, safe lifting, all the rest - and some business insurers are insisting that students don't count as 'visitors' but as staff, and therefore have to go through all that if the company insurance is to cover them. Oh, and the people dealing with the student are supposed to have CRB checks. (Criminal Records Bureau - protection of children and vulnerable adults. The checks can take up to a month to come through, they have to be renewed, and they aren't free.) More and more companies are simply saying that however valuable work experience may be to the student, it's not worth the time and money to the employers.

[Margo]

I also think that for a lot of people, it (the work experience) isn't very useful to the student either - I think interviewing practice, and work shadowing for older students may be more use. Although I guess it depends an awful lot of the type of work, and what they are interested in

[jedikaiti]

Back in the dark ages when I was at school (circa 1994/5), we had a work experience week at the end of year ten (so age 14/15) where local employers would take pupils on for a week ( or maybe two - I forget) to do work experience with them. You had to apply for the placement, be interviewed for it, so you went through the whole gamut of 'getting a job' steps - including applying for more than one placement (you would get one of them - but not necessarily be offered them all). The employers then gave feedback on the application, the interview, and the whole of the placement. Valuable experience I think - even if a lot of it seemed to me to be common sense, perhaps it wasn't for others. Do schools not do this anymore? This is in the UK.

I think it's a brilliant idea, and all schools should do it.

[faithlessone]

My "work experience" (2004, aged 15) with a local museum/archive amounted to a week spent staring at pages and pages of Medieval Latin memorial inscriptions, with a dictionary, trying to translate them. My 'boss' didn't seem to care that Classical Latin (which I was studying) bears very little resemblance. Think the difference between Chaucer and Modern English - sure you can make a good stab with a bit of help, but it's not exactly fast going. It was apparently the only thing I could helpfully do without training or specific experience.

I was so excited to go back to school!!!

I think Work Experience can be very beneficial, but I think Interview Experience would be more universally helpful.

[PastryGoddess]

hmmm,

I just got a request to participate in a Resume Review session for college students.  I think I may participate, if only to give some good feedback to these students.

[Library Dragon]

Good volunteer programs for teens can be helpful.  Not the "hey, everyone show up and we will pick up litter" type, but regularly scheduled service.

Our summer pages apply, interview, and have to have 3 non-relative reference forms returned.  They sign in and out and have assigned tasks. There is a dress code (provided tshirts and casual pants or skirt).

When they apply for jobs we can be a reference attesting to their dependability and work ethic. 

[shadowfox79]

My "work experience" (2004, aged 15) with a local museum/archive amounted to a week spent staring at pages and pages of Medieval Latin memorial inscriptions, with a dictionary, trying to translate them. My 'boss' didn't seem to care that Classical Latin (which I was studying) bears very little resemblance. Think the difference between Chaucer and Modern English - sure you can make a good stab with a bit of help, but it's not exactly fast going. It was apparently the only thing I could helpfully do without training or specific experience.

Mine consisted primarily of two weeks of free labour at the local day nursery. For the first three days it also meant no lunch because nobody had bothered to tell the kitchens to provide us with any (there were four of us in total).

All I learned from that was that I never, ever wanted to be a nursery nurse. Ever.