Work Experience Guidance

What is work experience?

Work experience is a compulsory opportunity open to all Year 10 and 12 students, in year 12 it takes place before February half term and in year 10 it is in the final half term.

This is an exciting opportunity for students to spend valuable time with an employer, allowing them to experience the hours, working conditions and regulations they may encounter when they enter the world of work. For sixth form it also helps support personal statements for university or apprenticeship applications. Students are expected to organise their own high-quality placement, however as a school we will also offer support and guidance to ensure students gain the best possible experience during their time on work experience. In order to ensure students are safe whilst on placement, we use a system called Unifrog to store the risk assessments and health & safety documents that employers must provide - parents/guardians are able to log in to this and see these documents and their child's progression in securing a placement.

Work experience is key to bridging the gap between education and the world of work. At its broadest and best, work experience can open young people’s eyes to jobs they have never thought of, help inform career decisions, offer a chance to prove themselves to an employer and help instil the attitudes and behaviours expected at work

Careers Education And Gatsby Benchmark 6

At Netherthorpe, all students follow a planned programme of careers education, information and guidance within the Personal Development curriculum. Our careers provision ensures that students are exposed to the Gatsby Benchmarks (nationally recognised measures within careers education) which have been designed to give them the skills needed:

to manage their careers and to be able to investigate learning and career opportunities
for making informed judgments about learning and career options
to understand how these choices will help them achieve their aspirations
to enable them to successfully manage the transition to Post 16 and into higher education

Gatsby Benchmark 6 focuses on ‘Experiences of the workplace’ and states the following:

Every pupil should have first-hand experiences* of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks.

By the age of 16, every pupil should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

By the age of 18, every pupil should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

Benefits of work experience

Work experience placements are an invaluable part of students’ development. It teaches them early in life that school and work environments differ quite dramatically, which increases their maturity and develops invaluable skills that help them find and excel in work after school.

One of the most important benefits of work experience is its potential to provide opportunities for students to learn more about their own abilities. It helps them explore their strengths and weaknesses and identify the gaps in their skills. By helping students to explore the depths of their abilities, work experience can help students to draw a comparison between the skills they possess and those required by a specific job.

Work experience also allows students to develop several soft skills such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, team-work and time management. It exposes students to the latest trends in their chosen sector. It imparts them with specialist knowledge giving them leverage over students who are unaware of the current developments in the industry. This will enable them to talk more authoritatively about their chosen industry during job interviews. Employers tend to give precedence to students who have considerable background knowledge of their job roles

Top 10 Benefits of work experience:

Gives insight into the skills required for a particular job
Is an opportunity to test out a job to see if the student really likes it
Can broaden students’ knowledge of jobs they have never considered
Will increase students’ awareness of their own skills and strengths
Helps student to understand how the subjects they study in school link to certain jobs
Gives insight into what the world of work is really like and employers' expectations
Can increase student’s motivation to do well in school
Puts students in contact with potential employers
Can give students useful experience for their CV and provide referees
Helps students appreciate the skills needed to succeed in a job

Process for Year 10 and Year 12 Work Experience

Work experience is student-led with students finding and contacting a placement of their choosing. It begins with registering on Unifrog (Unifrog - The universal destinations platform.) the system we use to organise the programme – students have received an email to their school email address from Unifrog and will be allocated time during tutor time to use this. If students forget their password, Unifrog are an external company and they should complete a password reset as normal, this will trigger an email to their school email address.  If they have any trouble with this, please see or email Ms Taylor: dtaylor@netherthorpe.derbyshire.sch.uk
Students should spend time looking on the internet or exploring their local area for local businesses which they would be interested in completing work experience at.  When searching online they should consider adding additional terms to their search such as career categories (for example: architecture, engineering, education), the area they are willing to travel to and skills they are wanting to develop/explore.
Create a shortlist of potential placements and write down their contact details including main contact name, email address and telephone number.
Contact the employer. We have had great success in students gaining placements when they make contact directly either via phone call or by arranging to meet in person. For employers, this demonstrates independence and a level of professionalism from the student and often results in students securing a placement. Students are also welcome to use the Personal Development Hub telephones before school, during break or lunch to contact employers during school hours. Be proactive! Contact employers as soon as possible due to employers only being able to offer placements to a limited number of students at one time.
Once students have confirmed a placement – complete a ‘Work Experience Request Form’ – Students can get a copy of this form from their tutor, the Personal Development team, school website or Satchel.
Return the ‘Work Experience Request Form’ to Ms Taylor in the Personal Development office. Please ensure that you meet the deadline put in place by school (this will be advertised on Satchel). It is important that placements are confirmed by this deadline to enable employers to complete their risk assessment information and for school to ultimately approve it. If students submit a work experience request after this deadline, the student may not be able to go on placement.
Ms Taylor will then check the details for the work experience request and ensure that it covers the information that it needs to.
Once Ms Taylor checks the form, students will be able to fill out their placement details on Unifrog – this is on the main page they should scroll down until they find ‘placements’.  Students will need to complete all sections (employer contact name, phone number, email address, parent/guardian email address) ensuring accuracy at every step.  If any details are misspelt or inputted incorrectly this will result in a delay of the process as Unifrog is designed to process placements electronically and in order for the channels to receive the information, all details need to be accurate.  For example, if a student enters the email address of parent/guardian inaccurately this will mean that despite the employer uploading all their details, the process will be delayed as Unifrog will not have an accurate email address to continue on to the next step.
For attention of students of with any SEND or medical needs – it is essential that you declare these when filling out your details, it is a requirement that employers MUST be informed of students’ needs in order to ensure students are fully supported on placement.  
Once the initial student details section has been submitted it will be automatically sent across to their employer to fill out their Health & Safety and risk assessment sections. When the employer completes this, it will trigger an email to parents/guardians for their approval.
When parents/guardians agree to the arrangements, it will trigger an email to Ms Taylor at the school for ultimate approval.
Students should maintain contact with the employer in the months leading up to work experience to ensure they are fully prepared for their placement. Some placements will require students to wear uniform which they will need to take responsibility for and to arrange to collect prior to going on placement. Other placements may require students to wear safety boots – if students do not own any, please come to see Ms Taylor as we have a supply of work boots in school to borrow.
A few weeks before students go on placement, students will receive their work experience log book. During the weeks leading up to students going on placement, students will engage in a Health and Safety lesson delivered within Personal Development. This is a legal requirement that students understand Health and Safety within the work place prior to going on placement
Students are encouraged to contact the employer the week before placement to ask any final questions they may have and to express that they are thankful for the opportunity and looking forward to learning new skills.
Students are encouraged to contact the employer the week before placement to ask any final questions they may have and to express that they are thankful for the opportunity and looking forward to learning new skills.
Whilst on placement, a member of staff from Netherthorpe school will contact the employer at the start of the placement to ensure the student has settled in well, meeting expectations and to inform the employer about the student work experience booklet that students must complete during their time on placement.
Students return to school after placement and are asked to complete a work experience evaluation. The work experience provider is also asked to complete a short evaluation. Students are also expected to bring into school their completed work experience booklets. Form tutors will allocate time during Personal Development to go through students’ booklets and these will be used to form discussions.
During Personal Development, students will write a thank you letter/email to the employer thanking them for the opportunity and for taking the time to provide this valuable experience for the student.

Parent – guidance on how to support your child at home

Prior to placement - support

Parents play an important part in Work Experience. The areas you may be able to help in are:

Talk to your child about subjects they like and dislike and why they prefer certain subjects over others
Talk to your child about the skills they are good at and skills they would like to improve – how can these skills be used within a work setting?
Explore the Derbyshire Work Experience webpage to generate job ideas and explore different career options
Encourage your child to speak to their form tutor or the Personal Development team (Mrs Cracknell, Mrs Beeden or Mr Green) regarding work experience. We also have a careers adviser at school. Students can book an appointment with the careers advisor at Main reception.
Pass on any contacts who could help your child
Talk to your child about the benefits of work experience and the opportunities it could lead to
Encourage them to start their search for a placement early and check in regularly with your child to see how they are getting on securing a placement.
Remind your child of deadlines set – Students must have a placement confirmed before this deadline. This deadline is non-negotiable and is in place to ensure all Vetting, H&S checks have been undertaken prior to the placement.
Support them to arrange their own work experience to develop independence
Rehearse telephone calls they may need to make to an employer
Proofread emails they send to employers
Think about the location of placement and how they will get there

During the placement - support

As a parent or guardian, you will want to make sure that your son or daughter will get the most out of their work experience. The following tips will help you to support them:

Make sure they arrive on time
As work days are longer than school days, make sure they have a good night’s sleep
Talk to your child on a daily basis about their experiences
Remind your child to complete their work experience log booklet daily
Contact the school immediately if you feel your child is having problems during the work placements
If your child isn't enjoying their placement, help them to stay positive by focusing on the new skills they are developing

After the placement - support

Once the placement has finished, it’s important for your child to think about what they have learned. You can:

Discuss what they learned from the experience
Discuss if the choice of career chosen for work experience has had an impact on their future career aspirations – do they still want to go into that particular career sector or has the work experience influenced them to change their mind and explore a different career moving forward?
Encourage them to write and thank the work experience provider either by letter or email.

Contacting Employers – Support

Here are some hints and tips on how to have a successful phone call:

Be polite and cheerful
Speak clearly and not too fast so you’re easily understood
Make some notes before the call about what you want to talk about so you don’t forget anything
While you’re on the phone, make a note of anything important that you’d need to remember
Even if you don’t feel very confident, try and sound like you do! Take a deep breath before you call, and give yourself time to think when asked a question.
If a manager isn’t available at the time, ask if you can leave your phone number or email address for them to get back in touch with you.
If the employer is unable to offer you a placement, try not to be disheartened

Example of a telephone conversation:

Employer: Hello

Student: Hello, my name is Kelly Kapowski from Netherthorpe School and I’m looking for a work experience placement. Could I speak to Mr Belding please?

Employer: Yes, I’ll just get him for you.

Hello, I’m Mr Belding.

Student: Hello Mr Belding, my name is Kelly and I’m a Year 10 student looking for a work experience placement for 4^th-8^th July 2022 at your restaurant.

Employer: We can certainly help with that. What makes you want to work here?

Student: I have always been interested in hospitality and providing good customer service, so I feel a career working in a restaurant would be perfect. I just need some experience to get me going!

Employer: Ok, great. Could you come for an interview tomorrow, after school?

Student: Yes, that would be perfect thank you, I can be there at 4pm?

Employer: See you then, bye!

Student: Thank you, I look forward to meeting you tomorrow, bye!

Here are some hints and tips on how to write a successful email:

Where to find support in school

If you require further support and guidance please contact the following members of staff via the School Office; or alternatively via the email addresses below:

Work Experience Co-ordinator – Mrs D Taylor (Deputy Head of Personal Development)

Email address: DTaylor@netherthorpe.derbyshire.sch.uk

Careers Lead – Mr N Green (Deputy Head of Personal Development)

Email address: NGreen2@netherthorpe.derbyshire.sch.uk

Director of Personal Development – Mrs R Cracknell

Email address: RWells@netherthorpe.derbyshire.sch.uk

Careers Adviser – Mrs Carmel Haughey – If you would like to book an appointment please contact main reception who will allocate you an appointment

Email address: careersbycarmel@gmail.com