School - work placement

Work experience is increasingly seen as vital to getting jobs after leaving school, and beyond higher education as well. So schools are appointing work experience coordinators or assigning the task on top of some poor teacher's already overloaded hours.

The Coalition Government is obsessed with targets, so schools no doubt are expected to show good results in this, no doubt looked at by OFSTED.

So this poor work experience coordinator has to drum up a high proportion of work experience candidates.

It occurs to me your son may have taken this too literarally, in that it is something this individual will be trying to get from addressing whole classes.

On the other hand if this Work Experience Coordinator is directly pushing your son into a specific job, questions need to be asked.

Does she know about your son's ASC?  I'm not sure what happens in schools about the confidentiality issue, need-to-know, but it may be this staff member isn't taking disability into account.

When his school says his existing voluntary work doesn't qualify, what they probably mean is for them to meet the targets, they have to get pupils to complete a certain size of work experience unit they can assess.

Given the Coalition Goverment has scrapped fitness portfolios and is reintroducing team sports for all, partly on the grounds that the individual fitness reports were too bureaucratic, it does seem odd that they are treating work experience on a paperwork basis. Rather than what would best help the individual it looks like its all about the school meeting target quotas. 

So really you need to intervene and perhaps discuss with the school whether a strategy round your son's existing voluntary activity would suffice. Because what matters surely is what would best help your son.

Not more public school fantasy nonsense from Michael Gove and Co., who seem to thrive on being hated by every teacher in the country.

Work experience is increasingly seen as vital to getting jobs after leaving school, and beyond higher education as well. So schools are appointing work experience coordinators or assigning the task on top of some poor teacher's already overloaded hours.

The Coalition Government is obsessed with targets, so schools no doubt are expected to show good results in this, no doubt looked at by OFSTED.

So this poor work experience coordinator has to drum up a high proportion of work experience candidates.

It occurs to me your son may have taken this too literarally, in that it is something this individual will be trying to get from addressing whole classes.

On the other hand if this Work Experience Coordinator is directly pushing your son into a specific job, questions need to be asked.

Does she know about your son's ASC?  I'm not sure what happens in schools about the confidentiality issue, need-to-know, but it may be this staff member isn't taking disability into account.

When his school says his existing voluntary work doesn't qualify, what they probably mean is for them to meet the targets, they have to get pupils to complete a certain size of work experience unit they can assess.

Given the Coalition Goverment has scrapped fitness portfolios and is reintroducing team sports for all, partly on the grounds that the individual fitness reports were too bureaucratic, it does seem odd that they are treating work experience on a paperwork basis. Rather than what would best help the individual it looks like its all about the school meeting target quotas. 

So really you need to intervene and perhaps discuss with the school whether a strategy round your son's existing voluntary activity would suffice. Because what matters surely is what would best help your son.

Not more public school fantasy nonsense from Michael Gove and Co., who seem to thrive on being hated by every teacher in the country.