Many people do not enjoy the thought of spending time in the workplace and having to put lots of time and energy into it with the days being longer than the average school day. But where else are you going to get the same experience again? Only when you get to University will you have the chance to go out on placement and not everyone always gets that chance.

It can be for as little as a week and you just get a feel for what it’s like to be a member of staff and there is also that sense of achievement at the end of the placement of being an adult for a period of time. Wherever you go you will be treated like a member of staff and experiencing an office, shop, primary school or wherever it is you end up can set you up with more self confidence in the future and you may have that experience that others don’t have which is an advantage for whenever you do work experience again.

Some schools do not offer work experience as it is expensive to pay for a whole year of students but just think about how useful it can be. You will develop social and communication skills as you have to become acquainted with strangers and colleagues, you may develop IT skills if you are working with computers and technology in detail, if you are working in an office or building you may develop organisation skills if you are doing paperwork or have lots of jobs which need prioritising and sorting out. All these skills can be put to use back in school and in the future at college and university.

The only downside to this is if year 10s or years 11s go out on placement then they will be missing out on potentially vital school work. This is a disadvantage because it could affect grades and also after a long day at work, students may not feel like then doing an hour, or even two hours, of revision. However these skills that are maybe new to learn or even skills to develop can help with organisation at school, revision and maybe it may even feel like less stress after you have seen what happens in jobs.

So if your school does not offer work experience then please try to at least get your head teacher or senior staff to consider that work experience is 99% a great thing to do and will invest self confidence in the students. - Lucy Taylor student at Bradon Forest School