This Week’s Say

I’m sure we all remember where we completed our year ten work experience if we were awarded the pleasure of doing so. Posed as an exciting introduction to the workplace, the concept of work experience intends to provide youngins with an opportunity to test the waters in an industry and role they could someday find themselves having a career in. I mean, tasking sixteen-year-olds with some casual free labour in your reputable business, what’s the worst that could happen?

For some, it may have been a chance to pick a random place and enjoy the week off work. For others, it’s a time to take seriously and genuinely apply their knowledge from school in the context of the real world. As a committed student, I dreamt of being handed my custom embroidered gown, commencing my career as an oral hygienist. So I skipped down to my local dentist to pursue my dreams (spoiler alert, it’s not for me). I was young and eager, but my hygiene knowledge (other than my general germaphobe tendencies) was limited to my hospitality classes at school.

But that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Going in with little to no knowledge of the operations and embracing the learning? Of course, the staff want to train students to the best of their ability. After all, what else are you going to do with the teenager that was thrust into your custody for the week other than put them to work? Yes, these reputable businesses embrace a helping hand around the workplace, but at what cost? Monetary-wise, nothing. In terms of quality of service, I’d expect a mistake here and there.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s a mere five working days of the whole year but still, anything could happen. A student may accidentally break a $500 piece of dentistry equipment. A supposed aspiring interior designer may use a towel as a throw for the finishing touch on the luxury homeware store’s bed (in their front window display no-less). I’ve even seen the offspring of my corporate boss elect our office as their work experience playground of choice. And by a playground, I mean they spent hours folding letters, sealing them in envelopes and delivering coffee to their father. Oh, the thrills of education.

If I were to make an educated guess, I don’t think many of us have pursued careers where we first thought. With those school days in the past, we now live in reality. Every day is work experience except you get paid and you can’t return to school in a week. If you were the student who decorated with a towel, I wish you luck on your journey.