Work experience can allow students to get a taste of the industries and careers that they’re interested in. In Year 10, students are often starting to think about what they want to do after GCSEs and maybe even what they want to do in the future as well. Thus, work experience can be important for Year 10 students, which is why it’s also important to know the crucial details, such as when it happens.
In short, when students have work experience in Year 10 will depend on their school. This is because work experience in Year 10 is not a compulsory requirement for schools to set and therefore, they have freedom of how and when to do this. However, schools tend to put work experience placements around the end of the school year in the summer term.
Continue reading to learn more about when Year 10s do work experience and what may affect this. This article will talk you through whether Year 10 work experience is compulsory, how long it lasts and other important requirements for these work experience placements.
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When is Year 10 work experience?
From starting GCSE content to beginning to think about your next steps after secondary school, there’s a lot going on in Year 10. Just to add a little more to your plate, there’s also the issue of work experience that also has to fit within the school year.
While you might be wondering when exactly Year 10 work experience will take place, I can’t give you a definite answer. This is because it will entirely depend on your school.
While there is no set requirement for this, Year 10 work experience will often be set in the summer term. As Year 10s also tend to have some form of mock exams in this term, work experience schemes will often take place after this.
However, as I said, it will fully depend on your school and some schools may even decide to use the period before, after or even during the holidays to have students undertake work experience positions. In order to learn more personalised information, it’s best to ask your tutor or head of year, who should be able to answer this directly in relation to your school’s policies.
For more information about the general times of Year 10 work experience placements, check out this article by University Compare.
Can you do your Year 10 work experience in the holidays?
Regardless of when (and even if) your school requires you to do work experience, you can always arrange a work experience for yourself, without having to do it through your school. Due to this, one of the best times to get work experience is during the holidays, when you have the free time to do it in.
You have a variety of options when it comes to doing work experience in Year 10 in the holidays. This can range from formal work experience programmes that take place in the summer holidays to seasonal volunteering or even getting a summer job.
In fact, undertaking said work experience by yourself in the holidays will give you even more freedom and flexibility in being able to choose what kind of work experience you want to do.
If you want to do work experience in the holidays, you might be wondering if you would be able to switch it for the period your school has set as a work experience requirement. This might especially be the case as it can be difficult to find work experience placements, especially when set for a very specific date.
Unfortunately, I can’t give you a definite answer as once again this will depend on your school. Some schools will give students the option to opt out of this work experience placement period and will agree to let them do it at another time, such as in the holidays. However, as they will most likely not be planning to hold Year 10 lessons for that period, other schools won’t allow students to swap the work experience to another time.
For more information about this, it’s best to contact your school to see what their policies are.
Is work experience in Year 10 compulsory?
As previously mentioned, how work experience works on Year 10 will completely depend on the school. Due to this, you might be wondering if it is a requirement at all.
While work experience in Year 10 is fairly common, it is by no means a compulsory requirement. In fact, there is no requirement for school to set work experience placements in key stage 4 at all.
However, according to the Gatsby benchmarks, all students should have completed some form of work experience by the age of 16. These can range from formal work experience placements to volunteering or even going to work with your parent.
Despite this, the Gatsby benchmarks are just as the name states, “benchmarks”. In this way, they are more suggestions or guidance rather than an actual requirement.
You can learn more about this by checking out this Think Student article that will break it down for you in greater detail.
How long is work experience in Year 10?
As previously mentioned, work experience placements in Year 10 are not a requirement and so they can vary a lot between schools, if they do them at all.
Due to this, there is not set duration for how long a Year 10 work experience placement will last.
However, schools often set them to be 2-weeks. Although, some schools may only do a week, or a few days and others may even make this placement longer.
Something else that might differ between different schools is how they split up this work experience placement. Some schools will set this work experience all at once, but others will instead break this up into shorter durations, such as a week or even half of one, throughout the school year.
Once again, to get more specific information, it’s best to check with your school. You can learn more about how long work experience placements in Year 10 normally last by checking out this article by Groundwork.
Another important thing to remember is that in Year 10, students have the opportunity to get work experience by themselves. If this is done as part of a formal work experience programme, it will typically last somewhere between a few days to a couple of weeks. However, some kinds of work experience could last the whole of a holiday, particularly in summer, which would make it last over a month.
Should you do work experience in Year 10?
If your school hasn’t made it a requirement, undertaking some form of work experience is entirely up to you. There are many reasons why it may seem like it’s just more hassle, especially if you don’t have to do it. However, there is a wide range of benefits that come from doing work experience.
Some of these benefits of undertaking work experience are as follows.
- Work experience allows you to develop transferable skills that can be useful in future education as well as work.
- Work experience can help to make entering the workplace easier.
- Work experience allows students to better understand different careers.
- Work experience can help to boost your CV.
- Work experience can help you become more independent.
- Work experience tends to be fun and engaging.
For more benefits of doing work experience, check out this Think Student article.
Do you need a CV for Year 10 work experience?
When it comes to getting any kind of work experience, it’s all about the details. This especially applies to Year 10 work experience as it will most likely be your first time being in a work environment.
One of the important details that you need to consider is if you need a CV for your work experience placement as this will mean additional time in preparing it before you can apply.
Generally speaking, Year 10 students will often need a CV or something similar to undertake work experience. However, it will depend on the employer so you should check if this is stated in their application requirements.
To be on the safe side, it would be best to create your CV, just so that it’s ready if it does turn out that you will need one. This can be done by using software, such as Word or Google Docs.
Creating a CV can feel incredibly difficult, especially if you don’t already have work experience and have never had a job. Have a look at this Think Student article, which will point you in the right direction for what you should put on your CV.
What can you do for Year 10 work experience?
Regardless of when you do it, there are so many options of what you can do for Year 10 work experience. These include general options, such as volunteering at a charity shop, a food bank or finding work in a retail or a cafe or restaurant.
However, you may also want to choose what to do for work experience based on the subject you’re interested in. Look at the following list of work experience ideas for some of the main subject areas.
- Medicine and healthcare: Students can get work experience in settings such as a pharmacy, a local hospital, a GP surgery or even at a dentist’s surgery.
- Teaching: Students can get work experience at their own school or local primary schools as well as at youth groups and sports clubs.
- Media: Students can get work experience with newspaper or magazine companies as well as with publishing companies and local radio stations.
- STEM: Students can get work experience in companies that deal with aircraft or car manufacturing as well as accounting firms or departments and even at lab research facilities.
- Artistic and creative: Students can get work experience in theatres, galleries and even beauty salons.
- Humanities: Students can get work experience at museums, archives and even their local council.
You can learn about more ideas to get work experience by checking out this Think Students article.