How do I get student work experience for my son ( under 16)

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Next school year my son will shall be asked to find 'work experience' . He is an itelligent student and enjoys physics and chemisty, with test scores in science the highest in his year. He also enjoys maths. We are starting to look now for work placements which will match his abilities, and small lack of social skills, maybe a laboratory based work placement, but we cannot seem to find anywhere that will take anyone under 16. The vast majority of jobs are clerical, or working in shops, leisure centres/ with children and this does not appeal to him at all. Infact he positively hates the idea.

Does anybody know of anywhere in the UK that may offer work experience in the maths/ science sector to an under 16?

Where I've lived its always been illegal for kids under 16 to work. Guess maybe things are different in Britain. Most kids who work do babysitting, lawnmowing, petsitting or newspaper delivery. There's not much else children can do for work not having the education or skills. I can't see a lab taking him on because those sort of jobs need a university degree and labs generally have to abide by strict govt regulations so they can't have kids running lab tests. Regardless of what he hates the first jobs in most peoples lives are those horrid jobs working for the public that everyone hates! Maybe find someone in family that owns a business and will hire him for odd jobs.

nearly all UK secondaries offer 1 - 2 weeks voluntary work placement arranged by the school - usually in a bank, office, shop, fast food place etc, but they do personality testing and also ask the child what career path they wish ( if any) to follow. I heard that there are a small amount of placements in the science sectors, but his school doesn't offer them.

I know NASA have student work experience (voluntary) , so I was thinking something like this would be ideal! But unfortunately, there's nothing like this in the UK!

Before he's 16, pretty much the best you can hope for is volunteer work. Science labs with a company are pretty much out of the question, but you might have a chance, albeit a slim one, by going to a local college/university and talk to a professor there. Even then, I'd severely doubt it, since most schools are limited to only hiring students taking a minimum of 12 credit hours.

Once he's 16, even then there's very little chance for him, save for luck. I can pretty much guarantee that no company lab will hire him, a combination of insurance liability and the fact that they can get a college student for the same price. What he'll really need is luck. I was fortunate enough to be informed of an opening at the local planetarium by a friend of mine when I was that age, so I'd also suggest looking around for one of those, or a museum with science-oriented exhibits. The only problem with those is they do require a lot of public interactions, though fortunately, a lot of those interactions is with people that are actually interested in science.

Have you looked for any big companies that do scientific research and such in your area? If so, you can go to their website and contact their HR department. Or better yet, if anyone you know works in that industry, ask them, as having personal connections highly increase the chance your son will be given something.

My hometown's main industry is a large scientific research facility, and they do often let high schoolers do summer work and short term internship-type work, although I think 16 is their minimum age. If short internships are common for younger kids in the UK though, there must be companies around willing to give qualified kids a chance. Just one warning - pretty much all of the positions for high schoolers at the research area in my hometown are clerical or grunt work, and it's unlikely that any company working in the sciences will have a position for someone that young that isn't. Actual lab work, even the menial stuff, is mostly reserved for university students or high schoolers who have taken several advanced university-level science courses. It might be good for your son to be around that environment, though, even if he does end up filing papers or something like that.

Thanks ppl some great ideas. The idea of even filing in a research facility sounds great, and he will most likely be doing his exams early as he is 1 yr ahead in science. Also he likes the sound of the science museum and it hadn't even crossed my mind!

We will endevour to find out whether either of these will be possible.

Fast food, it will be good for him.

Will doing unpaid volunteer work satisfy the school requirement? He could always volunteer at the hospital. The ones here have volunteer posts that involve running equipment and supplies back and forth through different departments or even helping out in the preemie nursery sanitizing incubators and making nametags for the new babies, etc. It might not be exciting but its minimal human interaction.

I don't know what businesses are in Kent. Do you have an Observatory there? Our local observatory has volunteer positions logging data in the library for the astronomers. Volunteering at the zoo might also be interesting.