Flintshire school’s work experience week proves a great success

Students at a Flintshire high school have developed their interpersonal skills and gained an insight into a wide range of careers after completing a week’s work experience with local companies.

Argoed High School’s year 10 students were able to approach companies they were interested in themselves, or select from a list of 70 businesses on the Dream Safety Ltd. website, a company that provides a work experience health and safety vetting service for schools.

Amanda Scotter, Skills and Qualifications Officer, Argoed High School, organised the work experience week.

She said: “We are really proud of our Work Experience programme and are grateful to the local businesses that support our students with an insight into the workplace. Work experience allows the students to gain many skills such as independence, the ability to work with people they don’t know, and communication and listening skills.

“We recognise how difficult the transition from school to work can be so we have helped prepare students by helping them to put together a CV, and then on a recent PSE day we invited representatives from local businesses to visit us to conduct mock interviews.

“The feedback the students received really helped them in their preparation for their week in the workplace. They were given the option to select a workplace from the Dream Safety website or choose their own location but, in both instances, they needed to visit and request a placement.

“We have received extremely positive feedback from the local community; our students have conducted themselves brilliantly, with some being offered future opportunities for work which is fantastic. They are wonderful ambassadors for our school, and we are extremely proud of them.”

Sammy Brackenbury, a former Argoed student who now works at ITAS Solutions, was more than happy to support a student for the week. She remembers her work experience placement well, and how it helped her decide to pursue a career in IT. She said: “It’s a really valuable experience for them and for us, we’ve recommended it to other local businesses because it was such a positive week. Kean helped a number of our teams and completed tasks to a high standard.”

Kean said: “Everyone at ITAS was so supportive of me being there, they put me as ease straight away. I didn’t expect that I’d be as hands on as I was, I learned more than I was expecting, I definitely want to work in IT when I finish school.”

Evelyn and Summer (main photo) spent their week on the new school site with Robertson Construction.

Shannon Dawe, Social Impact Manager at the company said: “We run a “Bringing Construction to You” work experience programme, and the students demonstrated exceptional skills and a strong work ethic throughout the week. They engaged in discussions with project managers, quantity surveyors and design managers. They will be valuable assets to any workplace in the future!”

Evelyn said: “On the first morning I was nervous, but I was disappointed when the week was over. The programme was really structured, the guest speakers were great, and the research project we completed and presented taught me a lot about the construction industry.”

Sanna Lander at BaaStool Limited participated in the programme for the first time this year, and has offered to help again in future years as work experience student Jacab gained a lot from helping creating content for the company’s social media. She added that Jacab was “enthusiastic, and brilliant fun to work with, and he participated really well as part of our team.”

Nikki Pearce, Chair of Governors at Argoed High School and owner of Vivaldi Flowers, spoke about how valuable work experience is for students. She said: “I’d like to thank all of those involved: the
businesses, the staff behind the scenes organising all the placements and, of course, the students who I hope really enjoyed themselves and gained insights into how a business operates, the physical work that is involved, and how different each day can be.

“As a local business owner, I feel it’s so important to get involved and give our next generation of employees a taste of the working environment. Yet again, this has been a hugely successful week.”

Prior to attending their placements, students were given a Work Experience Pack with information about what to wear and what to expect.

They also completed an Agored Cymru booklet explaining how they planned their week, what was required of them, and what health and safety procedures they had to follow. By completing
the booklet, along with a few other pieces of information, the students stand to gain 2 B grades at GCSE.