Work Experience – what is it and why do I have to do it?

Work experience at TRS takes many forms and falls under the Beyond the Classroom programme (see the separate webpage on this).

So why does TRS do work experience?

Schools have a legal requirement to have in place a work experience programme but that actually isn’t the main reason.  Work experience helps build so many skills that are vital for when you leave school be it to go on to college, sixth form, university, apprenticeships, or the workplace. Doing work experience helps you build belief in yourself and gives you the confidence that you can do something out of your comfort zone.  More importantly, it develops:

  1. Improved self esteem, confidence, resilience and independence
  2. Ability to communicate with adults
  3. Improved timekeeping
  4. Additional practical work skills
  5. Team Working
  6. Problem Solving Skills
  7. Time management and organisation
  8. Clarifies job roles within industry
  9. Broadens horizons in relation to career routes and job roles available

Year 10 pupils go out for a week on an external placement and this might be for five days in one week or it might be one day a week spread across five weeks.  It very much depends on what best suits you and the employer you are working with.

The biggest worry everyone has is where will you do it?  For some pupils they might have somewhere in mind, such as with a family member or back at their old primary school and that’s good but, for others it’s not that easy.  Do not panic, you are not on your own with this. Our Work Experience Co-Ordinator Nikki Wilson will meet with you and help find a placement based around what you tell her you are interested in and would like to try.

Once a placement has been agreed you will need to enter it onto Unifrog so that the school can check it is suitable (if you have found your own) and approve your attendance.  This is done online through Unifrog and starts with you clicking on the mauve ‘Placements’ tab on the home page.  This will take you to a Placement Form where it will ask you for the placement and your parents contact details, and this then starts the process for the school to obtain the information it needs to approve your attendance.

;