Work Experience is an important and exciting element of the Careers Education we provide your child with at Coopers School.
Please see key dates below:
Y10 Work Experience 30th June - 4th July 2025
Y12 Work Experience 14th - 18th July 2025
In an ideal world, it would be amazing to provide your child with a WEX placement in their chosen industry or area. However, this is not always possible as your child may be restricted from accessing some placements by their age, confidentiality issues, or other Health and Safety elements. Therefore, we would like you to view this as an opportunity for them to experience the world of work, to learn important work-based skills and to gain confidence in meeting and working with new people. This will be a memorable week in the life of your child and we want them to gain a lot of positives from this experience.
We take your child’s Health and Safety very seriously and all work experience placements selected through the app will be approved by a member of staff and checked by the team who own the Changing Education app. Please see more guidance below.
Once you have found your placement
Finding work experience: HELPFUL HINTS
Here are some tips for finding work experience placements:
- Ask family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues of your parents/guardians – most placements come from people you already know.
- When you ask them, be clear about the dates of your placement.
- If you are approaching someone you don’t know, be professional when you approach them and try and find out the name of the main contact so you can write a personal letter/email/phone call.
- Make the request relevant to that business, rather than sending a batch of generic requests. If they do not respond to you, send another mail or make a phone-call to chase them.
- Sell your strengths: for example, if you are reliable, trustworthy, and eager to learn.
- Don’t get disheartened when a business says “no”. It will happen, thank them and move onto the next contact.
- If you decide to visit a business to ask for a placement, be business-like. Take a CV, dress professionally, talk confidently – businesses will respond better if they have trust in the student and a professional appearance can really help build this trust.
- Please remember to fill out the information on the app when you get the placement as we will need to approve this before you can proceed.
How to make a Work Experience request call
Before you make your call, make sure you are in a quiet place without any distractions. Think about what you might say if your call goes through to voicemail – know your own mobile number so you can leave it on the message. Remember to talk confidently and clearly – this is the first impression the employer will have of you.
It might be handy to have some notes in front of you to help!
Phone call script:
Hello my name is ….. and I am a Year 10/12 student at Coopers School.
I was wondering if I could please speak with e.g. the Manager, the ____ Department, someone about completing a work experience placement with your company?
I am really interested in becoming a …………………………….after school / university and I was wondering if you might be able to host me in your company for my work experience placement. My work experience is next summer from [add dates].
I am really interested in working in your company because……… (try and think of a good reason – it might be that you have read about the work they do, you follow their social media, you want to do that job when you are older).
Would you be able to host me for work experience? Is there anything else you would like to know about me?
If they can’t help you
Thank you for your time. Is there anyone you know who may be able to help me with getting work experience in the…… industry?
If they are not sure
Can I call back in a few days to check if you can host me? When would be the best time to call?
Thank you for your help.
wex request email example
An example email that you can adapt:
Dear Sir or Madam, (if you can find out the name of the person in advance, this will look much better)
I am a Year 10/12 student at Cooper’s School and I am looking for a Work Experience Placement in the summer as my school enables us to undertake work experience from [add dates].
I am writing to see you if you might consider hosting me at your company to allow me to gain an insight into the [XXXX] industry. I am really interested in a career in [XXXX] and I hope that work experience in your company will give me an idea of how to work towards this goal and the qualifications I need to take in the future.
I would like to add that I am a conscientious and hardworking student, I have 100 % attendance at school and I am always on time. In my spare time, I ……….. [for example as responsible and help my family….. OR am creative and dedicated and dedicate my time to…….. etc].
If you would like to phone me or interview me before you agree to a placement, I would be very happy to do so. If you need any other information, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely /faithfully
faq's
When is Work experience this year?
Work experience will be 1 week only from 30th June – 4th July for all Year 10 students.
How do you find a work experience placement?
There are a number of ways to find a work experience placement. Try asking family and friends if they can take you on or if they know anyone as a contact. You may also want to look locally and ask local businesses. Remember: anyone who agrees needs to be insured. This is something the school and the app creators will check!
How do I get onto my school email to get the app and log my placement?
Go to office.com and sign into your school account (as if signing into TEAMS). Click on the Outlook email button and this will take you to your email inbox.
There should be an email from Changing education with a link to access the app, and another link to set up the app. Once you have set up your app, you can log your placement on there.
Can we talk more about careers in form time, or in our lessons?
Your resources in tutor time leading up to your Work Experience placement will cover preparation for your Work Experience. If you have any questions though, please speak with your year leader, or Mrs Choudhury.
What work experience should I do if I am not sure about my career path?
You can consider your favourite subjects in school (or hobbies) and complete work experience in one of those industries. You may find completing work experience will give you some ideas about what you would like to do in the future, but it does not have to. The purpose is to get an idea of what the world of work is like.
Is it possible to do more than one work experience?
Unfortunately not as you only get one week of work experience and it is important that you see what it’s like in the same organization for a week. Don’t forget that all insurance and health and safety checks will need to be conducted for placements for all students so one per students is what we would like you to stick to. If you do have more than one option, choose the one you are most intrigued by, and don’t worry, there will be other opportunities in the future!
