Working Work Experience

By James Eldon, Executive Principal at Manchester Academy

We all remember our work experience. We asked our parents whether they could set us up with a job for a week and they talked to friends, and we were off for our formative stumble through the world of work. Anyone who has seen my DIY skills would testify that I was never a natural engineer, but because my dad managed a factory, that’s where I went. I did use a soldering iron badly which was immense fun. As an experience of work though, because my coworkers knew my dad, I had a great insight into the routines and conventions of a working week as they took me under their skilled wings.

What if your parents have recently arrived in the country? Don’t speak or write English? Have no network in the job their child would like to investigate? Well, the school should then step in. However, with 240 students in a year group where 75% cannot self-place, the scale of finding appropriate opportunities is immense. The capacity to find experiences aligned to students’ dreams is even more difficult. So, staff start opening up their address books – metaphorically – and try and hustle places for students. Again, all the limitations still hold true – the ‘who we know’ placement model is so dependent on connections which are resilient enough to ask for a favour. We also partner with an excellent provider who works tirelessly to provide meaningful places for students who we could not place, and we employ a member of staff to facilitate the whole process – we actively take the role of career mentor for our students, not leaving anything to chance.

This is why the Government should take seriously Futures for All's calls to create a system where every school has sufficient resources and staff capacity to coordinate the provision of high-quality work experience.

The Matthew Effect encroaches on educational experience again. The better connected you are, the better work experience your son/daughter gets. At an individual level this is understandable – we are supporting our child and their school by working hard to find a suitable placement. However, across the whole school system this means schools serving under resourced communities face significant barriers to place all their students in meaningful work experience.

I have been lucky to be working in the ‘engine room’ of GM Mayor Andy Burnham’s MBACC programme. This work seeks to make really clear to both students and their families, what the 7 growth sectors are in the Greater Manchester economy and how students can access these gateways through school and into post-16. The MBACC seeks to provide knowledge for our students in terms of the in-demand sectors they can train in, this excitement should then be supplemented by immersive experiences within these sectors. It seems almost cruel to ignite the fires of ambition but see them quickly snuffed out because your dad doesn’t know anyone who works in construction.

We need a national register of work experience companies who can offer time slots that we can book so that my students have an equality of access. Futures for All’s one-stop-shop for work experience placements would be a huge support to this challenge, making the sourcing of work experience placements far easier for schools and students. This easily accessed portal will make the system far more equitable and democratic, helping to diversify business recruitment. Businesses are being really creative with experience of work opportunities such as ‘safaris’ where a range of roles and skills are explored and there is, of course, a place for online experiences. But, if you are a business leader, please reach out to the local schools in economically challenging areas or with more complex cohorts, so that we can plan together a pathway for you to recruit the abundance of young talent you might miss because their families don’t know you. These young leaders will repay your generosity with commitment and loyalty and your work force will diversify and be enriched. We need to work harder together to make the experience of work, work!

This week, Futures for All published a new policy report which recommends how the government can deliver on their promise of two weeks worth of work experience for every young person.

Read the full story here.

Read the full report here.