Year 10 Work experience is a very important part of Longfield Academy’s calendar. It offers a unique insight into the world of work, which cannot be replicated in the school environment. It gives you the opportunity to know how it feels to work alongside adults; how people work together; how things get done; and how work differs from school. We believe it is an invaluable week, where many new skills can be learnt.
WEX does not necessarily have to link to your chosen career. Many young people do not know which career path they may take, but it gives you the opportunity to see what the world of work is like. Work experience will help you to learn about punctuality, dress code, communication, time management, as well as allowing you to develop new skills and experiences.
All students have to find their own placements. Finding your own placement is the only way to guarantee the job of your choice. Many places of work are used to offering work experience placements and are happy to accommodate students. You may know a person at a company that you can approach. Alternatively, you can send letters/emails to companies asking for a placement. Some students have even just walked in the door and successfully asked for work experience.
It is a proven fact that students enjoy and get more out of their placement if they find a placement themselves. This might be through contacts with family and friends or by asking local businesses. Don’t be afraid to approach companies and ask for work experience. It may be that your tutor could offer some support and advice with this.
All work experience placements are safety checked; this ensures that you are not exposed to any dangers. An outside agency completes this check for us; therefore, we have to receive placement details very early in order to allow enough time for this to happen.
It is important that your placement is local, this includes London and the Home Counties (those counties in close proximity i.e. Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and formerly Berkshire and Middlesex) as we can no longer complete Health and Safety checks outside of these areas.
Once you have secured a placement, you need to complete the ‘Work Experience Form’. All sections of this form must be completed clearly and accurately. Please ensure that you include FULL contact details of the company which has offered you a placement. This must include the employer’s address (which MUST be the address where you will be working); we also need a contact name, telephone number and a brief description of the work you will be doing (e.g. admin, retail assistant, mechanic etc.). In the ‘Additional Information’ box please include any medical conditions you have e.g. asthma. If a company offers our students a placement, we have a legal obligation to inform the company of any medical conditions. Also, don’t forget to tell us how you intend to travel to your placement. We are not able to offer any assistance with travel expenses so you will need to check your travel details carefully.
If any of this information is missing on the form, the placement will be returned to the Academy and may result in the placement not getting checked.
ALL forms must be returned by Friday 28th February 2022. This should give you plenty of time to find your placement. You may return your form before this date, however, placements found after this date will not be accepted.
All forms need to be returned to Mr Bird or Miss Sandford (main office). Please make sure you place your forms in an envelope and write WEX 2022 on the front of it.
Once we received your work experience form, we will instruct the Health and Safety check to be carried out. The placement will then be contacted to provide details of health and safety issues and the Academy will be informed if it is passed ‘safe’ for you to complete your work experience. The Health and Safety checks will happen after the final return day and we will only contact you if there is an issue with your placement.
A letter of confirmation from your WEX placement is required and should be attached to the WEX form when it is handed in. This should be on company headed paper. If your placement is unable to do this, the ‘Confirmation of Placement form should be completed and also attached for the WEX form.
About 2 weeks before the work experience week there will be an assembly where you will be given advice about your week. You will also be given a WEX journal to fill in whilst on placement.