Work experience: Information for young people, parents and carers
Work experience can provide you with an understanding of the work environment and help you gain essential skills for life and for work.
This page is for young people, parents and carers. See information about work experience for employers and education providers.
About work experience
Work experience can:
- help you engage you with the world of work
- sustain your motivation for education and training
- improve your chances of successful progression to the next steps in education, training or employment.
There are lots of ways to get experience of work. You could:
- shadow someone at work to see what their job is like
- visit different workplaces
- go to work with a parent or guardian
- do a work placement over one or two weeks
- go into a workplace for one day a week over a period of time.
How to find work experience opportunities
If you're in Year 8 and above, speak to your school or college careers leader about workplace experience.
If you're at college, your work placement team may also be able to help.
The Next Steps in London guide can also help you to learn more about career pathways.
Young person's story: Jade
Jade is a 16-year-old school student who had no experience of the workplace. She wanted to gain more of an insight into the world of work. The Career Hubs worked with Jade and her school to organise a week’s work placement with the local branch of a national retail chain.
Jade was keen to see all aspects of the business, so we worked with management to develop a work experience plan to allow Jade to oversee as wide a range of activities as possible. This included deliveries and storage, stock replenishment, customer service and home delivery services.
Jade and the shop manager had a pre-placement meeting and tour to make her feel comfortable about day one and to give an overview of expectations, as well as covering health and safety procedures.
Jade carried out all of the planned activities, working alongside different colleagues. Each day, she completed a log to analyse what she had done, what had gone well, where she could improve. She realised that new tasks could be difficult at first, but that organisation and communication helped overcome issues and she felt more confident in completing the tasks and in herself at the end of each day. She particularly enjoyed analysing her processes to come up with efficiencies.
Jade found her work experience very useful. She found it refreshing to ‘see such a diverse and lively atmosphere’. Her colleagues were welcoming and supportive and she enjoyed being able to take on new responsibilities. She learned that by listening she can improve her understanding of instructions, but that it’s also important to admit if she needs help.
Jade has now returned to her studies, and is determined to succeed.
“This work experience has made me more open-minded on the numerous jobs available for me and it taught me that there is more than one pathway I can take in life.”
Get in touch
Have questions about work experience? Email us [email protected]
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