Work experience

Both Years 10 and 12 will have the opportunity to participate in Work Experience this year. With applications for college, apprenticeships, employment and university being so competitive the addition of work experience to a student’s profile can be an invaluable.

The dates for our 2022-2023 work experience programme are below:

  • Year 10 work experience week – Monday 19th June to Friday 23rd June 2023
Yr.10-WEX-letter-to-parents-Oct22Download
Year-10-Contact-and-Consent-FormDownload

  • Year 12 work experience week – Monday 27th March to Thursday 30th March 2023
Letter-to-parents-Y12Download
Year-12-Student-Contact-and-Consent-FormDownload

Important dates

Year 12

Work experience launch assembly – Thursday 22nd September 2022
Work experience deadline – Friday 13th January 2023
Work experience dates – Monday 27th March to Thursday 30th March 2023

Year 10

Work experience launch assembly – Wednesday 5th October 2022
Work experience deadline – Thursday 30th March 2023
Work experience dates – Monday 19th June to Friday 23rd June 2023

Here are some of the reasons we think work experience is so important

  1. Young people are more likely to be successful in their job hunt if they have had work experience. Fact!

    Want some evidence? Well, over half of the graduate recruiters that took part in a recent research study by Highfliers said that, “graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.”

    Source: www.allaboutcareers.com
  2. If you haven’t got a clue what career you want to do, work experience is a perfect way to sample all the career options out there. It’s a way of exploring different jobs without actually committing to anything. You can dip your toe in the water without taking the full plunge.
  3. It’s the best way to get a real sense of your chosen industry. You’ll get to speak to employees and ask them questions. You won’t know what it’s like until you get closer to the action.
  4. It’ll help you identify your own skills and perhaps even highlight the areas that you might want to work on.
  5. And yes, work experience does give you something to put on your CV!

SIPS Education Placement Database

St Thomas More Catholic School works alongside SIPS Education to offer a safe, worthwhile, suitable business placement. Access to the database to search for possible placements can be found on their website. Pupils will be given the password to access the database. Pupils who have trouble using the site or can’t remember the password should see Mrs Prior in the Careers Office (F41).

To further support students in finding suitable placements you can access support from the careers team Monday to Wednesday during form time, break, or lunch.

Virtual Work Experience (VWEX) opportunities

For a full list of placements – sign in here to search and apply.

Please register with your school email address

If students want to actively seek virtual opportunities themselves the following websites are very useful and should be signed up to. Please inform Mrs Prior if you find you own work experience so the information can be added to your career profile.