Rethinking Work Experience

The 1980s saw the rapid growth of work-experience programmes in schools and colleges. This development was in response to central government initiatives, such as TVEI, as well as developments in courses with a compulsory work-experience element. Many of the improvements in the quality of work-experience schemes in local education authorities and schools were the product of local initiatives and the imagination and enthusiasm of individual teachers.

Originally published in 1991, Rethinking Work Experience was the first attempt to document these developments in order to provide a comprehensive picture of work experience in Britain at the time. The title of the book is based upon the idea that the introduction of the National Curriculum and the overhaul of education and training 16–19 requires a rethinking of the place of work experience in the curriculum. The book uses a new conceptual framework to describe and analyse developments and dimensions of work-experience programmes. This formulation of ten aims and five curricular frames for work experience had already been widely adopted in schools.

Rethinking Work Experience begins with an overview of the historical development of work experience focusing upon policy development during the period since it was first mentioned in the 1963 Newson Report. This is followed by an examination of the concept of work experience, and a comparative study of work experience in Europe and beyond. An extended discussion of the history of work provides the backdrop to an analysis of the current trends in work-places in Britain at the time. The organisational aspects of work experience discussed include a review of alternative models of school-based and LEA-based organisation. Employers’ perspectives, and work experience and the law, are fully examined. Rethinking Work Experience has a major emphasis upon the curricular aspects of work experience. The chapters on integration and progression contain many case-study examples of good practice, in addition to providing a framework to help schools improve these elements of their programme. Questions of equal opportunities are discussed in the chapter on matching students to placements, which again introduces a number of new approaches to this issue. The National Curriculum and 16–19 change highlight the importance of assessment, and the discussion not only describes current practice, but also offers an analytical framework for developing work-experience assessment. Finally, the issue of evaluation is explored in some detail, while the text as a whole provides a framework for evaluating LEA and school work-experience schemes.