How Work Experience Empowers Students with Additional Needs

Do you roll your eyes when the topic of work experience is brought up? A burden, a pain, a waste of your time. Babysitting some lazy teenager for two weeks. You don’t benefit. They don’t benefit. What is the point?

Work experience is incredibly important for young people with additional needs and can be a hugely beneficial process for an employer – if done properly. You will find working with special schools a bit different to mainstream. Interactions with employers are tailored to the individual. For some, that is meeting employers in school or visiting a business with classmates. For others, that could mean taking on a three-day internship. At the Lincoln Saints Federation, we are developing an extensive careers program, building work experience gradually.

Connor, a student at St Francis now employed by Stokes Tea and Coffee in Lincoln

Initially, pupils will take on an internal work placement. This could be in the school kitchen, reception or in a role supporting younger students. This enables them to build their independence in an environment they are accustomed to.

A supported external placement is the next step. We work closely with Lincolnshire County Council and have students at the Quad Café at their offices. While they are taken out of their school, their place of safety, a member of staff supports them.

Business interactions at this stage come through group visits to businesses and welcoming visitors to the school. This year we have visited multiple businesses - from printers to building sites. We’ve even had crime scene cleaners tell us about their careers.

Launched this year, we also have a school café manned by students. Every Thursday morning, the DT room is transformed into a bustling kitchen, with students churning out paninis, pastas, salads, soups and more.

Only once these steps are complete do students enter the world of work independently. Rather than being a week placement here or there, it is long-term and one, two or three days a week. This enables them to slowly build confidence in their role and become part of the team.

One partner business has given one of our students responsibility for an inventory spreadsheet that constantly needs updating. A job nobody takes ownership of, dealt with when it has built up too much. Rather than it being a chore nobody is responsible for, it is now taken care of each week.

In a café, they may have to clear and clean tables in the first instance, but as they grow and learn from others, students will start to take food out, take orders. At Stokes Café at the Lawns, Conner has been a real success story. They have given him the time he needs to build up his skills and succeed at his pace. So, the next time the question of work experience comes up, just stop before you say no and find out a little more. Are you being asked to babysit for a week, or are you being offered the chance to develop somebody with additional needs into a future employee?

Click here to connect with Adam Hooker of St Francis Special School

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Photography: Headshot Toby