Planning work experience can be tougher than you think. I was recently reflecting on the work experience I did while at university, and I got to thinking about the tasks I was able to complete for the companies I interned for and how it could have been improved.
I have also been in charge of looking after work experience interns a couple of times and it’s amazing how hard it is to fill up a week with tasks, job shadowing etc. without risk of leaving them idly sat at a computer or reading mounds of company literature.
I have written before about the benefits of work experience but this time I thought I would create a post for employers, about how to ensure the time an intern spends in a company is productive and beneficial.
Before you start planning work experience
Prior to the intern(s) coming in, there a few things you need to ask:
- Understand where their key interests lie: Although they should spend time in all/most departments during their time with you, you could arrange for extra time spent where they are most interested in starting careers.
- Is this their first work experience placement? To use marketing and public relations as an example, maybe they have already learnt the basics of press release writing, so utilise their time with you to build on those set of skills. Or if it’s their first time exploring the industry, think about the key skills needed and create tasks to help teach them.
- Seems obvious but find out where they are in their education. Are they school leavers embarking on college or university? Or maybe they are already at university, and in their final year; could this be a future employee you’re hosting?
Planning work experience: One week of tasks
Monday
- Welcome and provide an overview of the company
- Meet the CEO
- outline expectations for the week (both the intern(s) and employer), which can help dictate some tasks to set up and/or shadow. If the intern’s interest lies in marketing, still ensure they experience as many areas of the company as possible, but get them involved for the majority of their work experience with the marketing team.
- Introduce key members of staff and book in time that the intern(s) can spend with them over the coming days (if not already arranged). This is a valuable opportunity to share experience and advice, and answer questions.
Among several work experience opportunities I had while I was at university, I had a week at a PR firm that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was involved in a variety of tasks from the first day and received good advice and feedback throughout.
One thing I missed though was time with the business owner, I would have benefited from spending an hour picking her brain about her career experience and advice about working in the industry.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
- Attend a meeting: Where appropriate, encourage the interns to attend a couple of meetings during the week. This is a great opportunity for them to understand how different departments might work together, or how i.e. marketing come up with ideas for the next customer event. Encourage the sharing of ideas and joining in the conversation, as well as taking the meeting notes to share with the team afterwards.
- Demonstrate some key skills of the industry: I have already mentioned press releases, but what skills are integral to your business and industry that you could share some early insight upon? Is there a special way your company captures and presents data? Can they have a go at design?
- Set up a mock interview: Don’t make it scary or too formal but encourage it to be taken seriously and ask genuine questions relevant to the industry and role they might be applying for. You could draw upon tasks the intern(s) have contributed to this week and determine any strengths and weaknesses that may have developed. Afterwards, take the opportunity to provide full feedback and tips that the intern(s) can take forward with them.
Friday
The final day! (phew!) Begin the day by wrapping up any tasks the intern(s) have been working on.
As a final task, ask the intern(s) to create a short presentation about their week with you – ask them to rank each task completed from most to least enjoyed and why; what have they learnt about the company and its culture? and is there an idea they have had about something they have seen etc, that they could share?
Ask for feedback from your staff about the intern(s) and relay this back to them. What tasks they did well in, etc. Ensure that the intern(s) have spent time with the key members of staff outlined at the beginning of the week, and get time with the CEO/business owner if possible to share knowledge and industry advice.
I’d suggest keeping Friday short and sweet, a pub lunch depending on how well relationships have built and let them go home early.
Finally…
I really admire companies that offer work experience. It can take a lot of organisation but in exchange for giving young people some career insight into an industry they are interested in working in, employers can see their workforce through fresher eyes and take the opportunity to hear new ideas.
By all means get the interns to make some teas and coffees for everyone, and help complete that filing task that Karen has been too busy to get round to, because the best interns want to be useful, get involved, and show initiative. But you’ll do yourself and your company a disservice if the interns have nothing meaningful to demonstrate at the end of their time with you.
I hope this post was useful and helped inspire some ideas.
Until next time x
