Work Experience for School Pupils

All work-related learning can provide you with skills and knowledge to help you consider your future career choices. Activities such as work placements, sector talks, mentoring, mock interviews, workplace visits, and enterprise activities at school, to name a few, will develop your transferable and employability skills and will allow you to put your existing skills into practice, or observe others using theirs.

School pupils are entitled to undertake a work placement before they leave school. A placement could be generic to increase employability skills or in an area of interest to gain an understanding of a specific role or industry. If you wish to consider a work placement within school hours or to support your learning, speak to your Guidance or Subject Teacher about work-related learning opportunities. They will be able to help you plan for this type of learning experience and to make sure that it fits in with your current timetable and workload. It is important that you prepare well beforehand, so that both you and the employer get the best from the experience. Think about what you want to achieve, consider what you want to learn and set some goals to keep you focussed.

Before you take on a work placement some employers need you to have a certain level of maturity or understanding of the workplace. This is to ensure that their business can run smoothly, that you are able to undertake work safely and that a high level of customer service can be maintained. If you don't think you have the skills at the moment, it provides you with a chance to consider how you could obtain them, maybe via one of the alternative options to work placements.

Generally work placements should take place at the most appropriate time for you, although there are restrictions on some activities according to age. Some pupils may undertake an extended placement as part of their Senior Phase (S4-S6) timetable or a placement can be a day visit, work shadowing or one week placement. Alternatively employers may be able to support schools with activities such as mock interviews or sector talks. These should all count towards the development of work-based skills. Full details of all these opportunities can be found on the Work Experience Tab on hi-hope.

We have 3 key work experience documents that explain this process in detail. Click on the link:

1. Guidance for Students
2. Guidance for Schools
3. Guidance for Employers

For further information around the legislation for school pupils visit the HSE website - Work Experience