What Is Work Experience, Exactly?
At first glance, the term itself seems pretty self-explanatory. However, work experience can come in many shapes and serve many functions.
While it can be a means of progressing within an existing career, for most of us, work experience is a means for students to get their feet wet in the world of work before starting out in their careers in earnest. Typically, it is unpaid.
Work experience participation can afford young people a chance to try out different jobs and careers. Based on this, they can make a more informed decision on whether they wish to pursue the necessary training/qualifications to enter the field – a kind of try-before-you-buy type scenario.
Become an Engineer: Learn – Design – Build
This resource takes the form of an interactive Google Slides™ presentation and a printable PDF format.
Covering basic theory supported by hands-on activities, surveys, videos, games, and design-and-build projects this fun and engaging resource will help give your students a taste of what it’s like to be an engineer – all from the safety of the classroom or their own home.
Through a wide range of interactive and enjoyable activities, this classroom and remote learning-ready resource covers:
• How to build stable structures using triangles and tetrahedrons
• What a truss is and its component parts
• The different types of truss bridges and how to recognize them
• How trusses respond to loads
• Compression and tension forces
• Building a bridge from various materials
• Assessing success
And lots, lots more!
Perfect for the classroom, homework, or as a virtual work experience for those looking to learn more about the work of an engineer.
Why Is Work Experience Important for Students?
There are many reasons why it’s important our students take opportunities available to gain experience on the job.
Work experience offers students a chance to:
1. Try Out Their Job and Career Ideas
Work experience provides an important opportunity for students to see and feel what a job they’re interested in is really like.
Often, students pick up unrealistic expectations of what it’s like to work in specific jobs or particular industries. These impressions are frequently picked up from TV and other media.
For example, watching The Vet Life on Animal Planet might make a day in the life of a veterinarian look filled with mostly hi-5ing cool camaraderie. However, a few days encountering some of the less pleasant aspects of the job at a busy vet’s practice might put a few eager applicants off their dream job!
While we do our best as teachers to help our students find jobs that best suit their talents, skills, and interests, there is no substitute for a little engagement with the reality of the job to see whether it’s a good fit.
By availing of opportunities to gain work experience in several areas, students can compare and contrast some of the posts they are considering and plan their next step accordingly.
2. Learn New Skills
Even if the work experience is a bust in the sense that the student hates the job, they will still learn a lot.
Not only will they eliminate something they aren’t suited for, but they’ll also be likely pick up a new skill or two along the way.
Even jobs that appear completely unrelated frequently rely on shared skill sets, particularly those skills known as ‘soft skills’ which are transferable between jobs, e.g., communication skills, problem-solving, creativity, etc.
The more skills and experience a student acquires, the more attractive they’ll be to future employers.
3. Boost Confidence
Let’s face it, starting work can be intimidating. Even as an experienced adult, starting a new job can be daunting.
Work experience can operate as a kind of ‘exposure therapy’ for the inexperienced student. One of our strongest fears is the fear of the unknown. However, with a little exposure, workplace nerves can soon dissipate.
This is one of the main reasons employers value work experience so highly. Not only does it offer the student practical experience, but it also acts as a baptism of fire that anoints the young person into the world of work.
4. Grow a Network
While the primary purpose of work experience isn’t to land a job, it is a great way for students to get a chance to meet people in the field they are interested in working in.
Work experience can lead to making friends and contacts that may lead to new opportunities down the road. Work experience creates an early opportunity for students to dip their feet into the world of networking.
5. Show Commitment
Most jobs these days require specific training, whether in the form of an apprenticeship, vocational, or academic courses.
Securing a place on the right course to gain employment can be very competitive. Students who have already completed a work placement in a related area are often looked upon favorably by those in charge of admissions.
6. Identify Challenges
A few days on the job frequently provide students with a clear understanding of areas they will excel in and those areas they need to do more preparation in.
For those with disabilities, for example, work experience can provide valuable information regarding adaptations and adjustments that might need to be made for the student able to perform in the role effectively.
7. Personal Development
As with education as a whole, the value of work experience extends beyond securing employment.
Work experience is a chance for the student to develop personally and grow as a person by pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.
Types of Work Experience
There are many types of work experience, and we aren’t just referring to different types of jobs. There are formal, organized work experiences, as well as more casual and informal setups.
Let’s take a look at the most common of these.
1. School/College Work Experience
Usually, this is undertaken over one or two weeks and is set up by the educational institution or, occasionally, the individual themselves.
Sometimes it is undertaken as part of a specific training course or course of study.
2. Internship
This is a temporary position offered by a company that provides practical experience to the intern. While these positions are also time-limited, they are often for extended periods and though they can be paid or unpaid, it is becoming more common for companies to offer interns a small stipend.
3. Volunteering
By definition, volunteer work is unpaid. This is a great way to gain experience and skills as nonprofit organizations are usually screaming out for help!
Even if a volunteer position does not offer students direct experience of the jobs and careers they aspire to, they can still be great for honing those transferable soft skills by performing tasks such as making calls, writing, taking part in fundraisers, organizing, etc.
4. Community Work
Similar to volunteer work, taking part in local clubs, sports, theater, music, and religious organizations and events, can be a great way to develop those soft skills, and have fun!
Many employers look positively on applicants who are active, especially when it involves giving back to their local community.
5. Job Shadowing
This is a very specific type of work experience where the student is assigned to one person who they will ‘shadow’ throughout their time on the job. This is a very effective way for a student to get an insight into what’s involved in a job, without necessarily doing it themselves. The purpose here is more observation than gaining practical experience.
6. Neighborhood Chores
It’s possible to get a head start on developing work skills by simply helping out within the local neighborhood. Completing chores such as cutting grass, babysitting, dog walking, and painting fences can all communicate the value of hard work to students and should not be overlooked. These types of activities are great for communicating a strong work ethic and an enterprising spirit to future employers.
7. Gap Year Experience
Often combined with traveling abroad, gap year work experience typically takes place in a year between leaving school and starting college or university.
Usually organized by the student themselves, sometimes with the help of agents and specialist companies, common gap year positions include:
- Teaching English
- Working as an au pair
- ‘Woofing’ (exchanging casual labor for room and board)
- Ski instructor
Essentially, gap year experiences are all about gaining experience traveling/living abroad and working, in equal measure.
How to Find Work Experience Opportunities
Sourcing suitable opportunities for students can be one of the more challenging aspects of work experience. The more strategies employed and avenues explored, the more likely the student will be successful in sourcing a valuable experience.
Below, we’ll explore some ways to help ensure your students find rewarding work experience.
1. Follow Interests and Abilities
Perhaps the most obvious place to start, students should reflect on their own interests to decide in which areas they would like to pursue their work experience.
For some, there will be an obvious connection between the things they enjoy and jobs they would like to try.
For others, however, the connection may not be so obvious. With a little research, reflection, and some discussion with friends, families, and teachers, even the most esoteric of interests can usually be related to some type of work.
Interest surveys and skills audits can often help the student to get to the bottom of things too. While “Go with what you’re good at” can be good advice for the student who holds no special interests.
Of course, we can’t expect teenagers to know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives just yet. This is, first and foremost, an opportunity for them to try new things and give them a go.
If you want to explore more on this topic, check out our Ultimate Guide to Helping Students Find Their Career Path here.
2. Apply to Work Experience Programs
Just as many schools and colleges run formal work experience programs for their students, there are lots of organizations that run programs that provide young people with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience. These usually require making a formal application and securing a place can sometimes be very competitive.
Even if a company doesn’t advertise a program, it is sometimes worthwhile making an inquiry, especially with larger firms.
3. Do a Little Research
The best things in life usually don’t just fall into our laps. It’s important to encourage our students to be proactive when seeking out that perfect work experience.
The single most effective tool the student has at their disposal is the internet. A quick search online will quickly reveal companies in the local area in industries that the student has a particular interest in. Contact details are easy to find these days.
Old school strategies still work too. Students should put the word out among family and friends about what type of work they are looking for. Allowing the word to pass around their wider network in this fashion can often throw up exciting opportunities.
4. Prepare a Resume and Cover Letter
While young people may not have a lot of formal work experience to put on their resume just yet (kind of the point of seeking the work experience in the first place!), it is still worthwhile for students to put together a resume and cover letter.
Taking the time to do this can go a long way to showing a company that the student is committed and serious about doing a placement. This can help overcome the understandable reluctance of some employers to take on young students in the first place.
5. Choose Popular Industries
Focusing their efforts on working in a growth industry is more likely to have a positive outcome in terms of securing a spot.
While it may not be the student’s ideal choice, they will still be able to gain knowledge and skills from the experience, even if these aren’t directly related to the field they eventually want to work in.
As we’ve said before, many of the so-called ‘soft skills’ are both highly valued by employers and transferable between jobs. This is also true for many of the skills that the more entrepreneurially-minded student will require too.
Another advantage of this approach is that by focusing on popular industries, the student is more likely to be connecting with larger companies who are, in turn, more likely to have programs in place, or at least some experience working with students.
6. Add a Dash of Creativity
There’s very little that a dash of creativity and a good-sized dollop of imagination can’t overcome.
Even in the most limiting circumstances (location, weather, global pandemic!), it should still be possible for a student to access some kind of work experience, it just may take a little ingenuity to achieve.
Virtual Work Experiences & Remote Job Experiences
The recent lockdowns of our societies have had a devastating effect on many aspects of our lives. From our physical and psychological health to our educational and professional activities. Few facets of our existence have escaped unscathed. Work experience is no exception.
However, just as we have needed to be inventive to overcome changes to how we work and study, so too have we adapted to how students undertake work experience. Two particularly resourceful solutions to these difficult times have been the virtual work experience and remote work experiences.
The Virtual Work Experience
Virtual work experience is where a student completes a simulated work experience, usually online and from their home.
Rather than physically presenting themselves at the workplace to pick up knowledge and skills through hands-on participation, students complete a series of activities at home that simulate the tasks they would previously have completed onsite.
For example, an aspirant civil engineer may use Computer-Aided Design software online to learn how to design a bridge or a building. Or someone with the ambition to become a police officer may complete a video tutorial on police procedures to follow at a crime scene.
However, not all knowledge and skills need to be acquired online in virtual work experiences. Virtual work experiences can also include practical activities related to the job.
For example, an engineering virtual work experience may include a task to build a model bridge from various materials to test load-bearing capabilities, while the police trainee may perform a number of physical exercises from the police entrance test.
Remote Work Experience or e-Experience
This type of work experience offers the opportunity to complete a work experience with a company in much the same way as a remote worker completes the duties and responsibilities of their job remotely.
Unlike the virtual work experience described above, the remote work experience is, in many ways, a traditional work experience except it is completed remotely enabled by technology.
Are You Work-Experienced?
For various reasons, securing suitable work experiences for all our students can seem initially challenging.
Whether facing geographical, physical, legal, or safety obstacles, I hope the information in this article offers you some useful avenues to explore when supporting your students in the search for suitable work experience.
Over the next few months, The Careers Creative will be developing a series of Virtual Work Experiences that students can undertake from their own homes. To keep up-to-date, please follow The Careers Creative TPT store here.
Credits:
Author: Shane Mac Donnchaidh
Featured Image: pch.vector at Freepik