work experience

At Darrick Wood School, all Year 12 students take part in our annual Work Experience Programme each July. Additionally, all Year 12 students studying a BTEC course which requires them to participate in a work experience placement in line with their course, will complete additional work experience during the academic year.

Our work experience programme is designed to give young people a better insight into the world of work and to acquaint them with the key skills necessary to succeed in adult working life. Taking part in the work experience programme is an excellent opportunity for students to learn and develop transferrable skills that will benefit them in the future.

Aims of the Work Experience Programme

To give students a practical understanding of the wider society outside school, particularly the role of employment and the economy in everyday life and to prepare them for transition from education to employment.
To help students achieve a better understanding of industry including how a business functions, employer expectations and to introduce them to requirements, disciplines and satisfaction for working life.
To give students the opportunity to develop self-confidence and social skills, resilience, enhance general, personal and social development and to encourage them to acquire basic skills in a variety of work.
To enable them to form relationships outside their immediate social group and to make real life decisions.

Year 12 Work Experience Programme - Monday, 7 July - Friday, 11th July 2025

All Year 12 students are required to source a one-week work experience placement from Monday, 7^th July until Friday, 11^th July 2025.

Students have been briefed during a registration presentation, led by Mrs Collier, our Head of Work Related Learning and are aware of their responsibility to source their own work experience placement.

Mrs Collier is available for support and guidance and students are aware that they must speak with her to keep her updated with their progress.

This year, we are using Unifrog (www.unifrog.org) to manage the administration of the work experience programme – for example collecting information from the Employer about their risk assessment and Health & Safety Policy, as well as getting agreement from parents/carers for the placement to go ahead.

Students must agree the placement with the Employer first, and then students will get the ball rolling by adding the placement to their Unifrog account (they’ll find the Placements tool on their Unifrog homepage). Login details were provided to students earlier this term and students have been advised to contact me if they require details to be re-sent. The Unifrog system will then email the Employer, the named Parent/Carer, and the School, to collect the necessary information and permissions. For the process to work, it is essential that students add the initial information about the placement accurately.

Once a student has secured a work experience placement, the following forms must be submitted by the deadlines outlined:

The Student Initial Form must be submitted by students on Unifrog as soon as they have secured a placement and no later than Friday, 25^th April 2025.
The Employer Form and Parent/Carer Consent Forms must be submitted using the links emailed directly from Unifrog by Friday, 9^th May 2025. The sequence of form completion means that if a form is not completed, the process cannot move to the next stage. The Employer Form and Parent/Carer Consent Forms are sent directly by Unifrog to the emails that are provided in the Initial Student Form and neither the Employer or Parent/Carer require Unifrog accounts to complete the forms.

Finding out more:

Unifrog have created a set of guides about placements which you can find here.
Within this set of guides, this is the best one to start with (it includes a short animation of how the whole process works).
Next we recommend looking at this one, because it includes advice on how to find a placement.

Students are encouraged to contact Mrs Collier for advice and update her of their progress in finding a work experience placement. It is important that students do this so that the school are aware of individual progress and can update records in order for the Careers and Work Experience Department to start making basic checks on placements that have been sourced.