Work Experience

Congratulations to Microsoft and Intel which have both received awards from the National Council for Work Experience for their work experience provision.

This is always a tricky area because much as I agree with giving people work experience - it is quite a lot of pressure on the teams involved, particularly if you are a smaller team, because you have to make sure the person isn't sitting there bored to tears.

However when you have a job to do it is quite easy to just leave them sitting there counting their fingers, and very difficult to resist the temptation to give them tasks such as filing, fetching the tea and general admin duties. Someone I knew spent his week's work experience sorting out the office mail. Hardly what he signed up for.

I was pretty lucky with my work experience - which ranged from a lawyer's office to a national equine magazine to a top radio station - all of which kept me very busy and gave me great experience - obviously some were better than others.

I take my hat off to any company that can actually provide a worthwhile experience for young people. After all, they are the workforce of the future.