A Work Experience Year 10 Student’s Guide to Workplace Learning

Many students enter college without having any idea what type of work they wish to do after school or what their career directions are. Others may know what they want but may still need work exposure to refine their career plans. This is why schools encourage work experience Year 10 and higher placements among students.

What is work experience?

Work experience is an arrangement which allows a student to perform tasks and duties similar to the functions of a regular worker. The goals of work experience placement are to:

• provide learning experience in a real-work environment
• teach and develop specific skills relating to a job
• develop self confidence and communication skills
• teach students how to work with other people

Benefits of work placement

The placement of work experience year 10 students often provides young Australians with much needed direction as they are able to see which skills potential employers are looking for in an employee. This increases your chances of obtaining employment after school.

Other benefits of a work experience placement include:

• skills development
• clarity in career direction or path
• on-the-job training experience
• improvement of CV or resume
• development of interpersonal skills

Employers benefit as well by gaining access to valuable skills and better choices for recruitment. It is well known that many employers eventually hire work experience Year 10 students on a permanent basis when satisfied with their placements.

A placement may be full-time or extended. Full-time arrangements allow a student to work in a business for a week or longer period, and apply usual hours of work. Extended placements take a longer period to complete in which a student is required to show up and work only once every week.

Organising work placement

1. Your school will ordinarily have a coordinator to facilitate placements for students. Check the school’s guidelines in arranging work experience placement.
2. Placements are often limited to a few vacancies so it’s best to make enquiries and send applications early.
3. Notify the coordinator of details of the approved placement program.

Work experience Year 10 students may not always know where they want to train or which career direction to take. A good starting point is to choose the work environment such as an office, shop, factory or marine environment. In which case, gaining experience in an adult work environment is important. It is possible to discover your career path during the work exposure.

Kind Regards,

Alison Doyle

Career and VET Coordinator