Work Experience
During the summer term, all of our Year 10 students spend one week on a work experience placement. The dates for Work Experience this year will be 12th to 16th May 2025.
The Department for Education (DfE) definition of work experience is "A placement on employer’s premises in which a student carries out a particular task or duty, or range of tasks or duties, more or less as would an employee, but with an emphasis on the learning aspects of the experience."
Our aims for the work experience programme are:
- developing students' employability and leadership skills
- creating enthusiasm for work and specific careers
- building relationships between our school, employers and students
Parents of Year 10 students will receive a letter and further information on work experience in the Autumn term. Students will also have a special assembly on work experience with tips on how to secure a placement and what to do next.
We actively encourage students to find their own placements. The benefits of this are that students have control over the type of work they would like to do and approaching employers themselves will also provide good practice for making job applications in the future. It may be something they are thinking about as a career or just something they are interested in and would like to try. If students have difficulty in finding a placement, or knowing where to start, they can contact the school's Work Experience Coordinator, Mrs Edgington at eedgington@ridgewayeducation.com or Careers Lead, Mr George. If a placement is found for a different week, please seek approval for this via Mrs Edgington.
Once a placement has been found, we ask that a form be completed by both the student's Parent and the Employer by Friday 14th March. The links to the relevant forms are shown below:
Parent Consent Form:
This form needs to be completed by one parent or carer of the student going out on work experience, once a placement has been found.
Employer Placement Form:
This form needs to be completed by the employer offering the placement to provide details of the tasks the student will be doing and any health and safety measures in place.
Year 9 Takeover Challenge
As a school, we are keen to seek opportunities to develop our students' employability, leadership skills and resilience and believe that the more opportunities a student has to gain experience of the world of work, the better.
The Takeover Challenge is a brilliant opportunity for students to organise three days of work experience. This opportunity is available to students in Year 9. The Takeover placement could be in a career sector that interests them or in a workplace they would like to experience - perhaps with a family member. It is a great way to learn new skills and build a career network, whilst having a really fun and memorable few days.
Year 9 Takeover: Wednesday 6th to Friday 8th November 2024
Parent and Employer forms need to be completed by Friday 11th October 2024. The links to the forms are shown below (please note these forms are not the same as those above for Year 10 Work Experience):
Parent Consent Form:
This form needs to be completed by one parent or carer of the student going out on work experience, once a placement has been found.
Employer Placement Form:
This form needs to be completed by the employer offering the placement to provide details of the tasks the student will be doing and any health and safety measures in place.
Employers
Are you an employer or employee who could help our students by offering them meaningful and worthwhile opportunities to learn new skills, gain experience of the world of work, create enthusiam for careers and learning and develep contacts? If so, we would love to hear from you.
We offer a number of opportunities to get involved throughout the year including workshops, meet the employer events, 1-1 mentoring and Work Experience. If you think you can help, or would like more information, please contact our Work Experience Coordinator, Elianne Edgington eedgington@ridgewayeducation.com or Careers Lead, Stuart George.
We would also like to keep employers informed of these Careers opportunities and initiatives throughout the year through our Employers database. We would love for you to join us!
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