Two Weeks of Work Experience

During exam season I felt strongly that I wanted to be productive during the summer because why waste it? Seeing as my school didn't do work experience in year 10 (while most do) I decided to contact my old primary school. They offered me two weeks of work experience in the infants and not only will this be very helpful to show for myself when writing my personal statement to send off to universities, but I also learnt so many great things having done it and it was enjoyable for so many different reasons.

1. Understanding young children

I was working with four and five year olds which was a great challenge for me as it's not something I've ever done and in general, I'm not used to being around such young children. These two weeks helped me learn how to speak to them and how to go about complimenting them. For example, if they showed me a drawing they did, rather than just saying "That's amazing!" I learned that I should say what specifically was done well, i.e. "Wow, I like your use of colours".

2. Their innocence

The fact that they're so young makes them view the world so differently to the way that even children who are a few years older do. They don't withhold society's ideologies that we learn as we grow up which in many ways, makes these young children much kinder. Therefore, I somehow felt like I could totally be myself when working with them and any complexes or insecurities I have, were let go when working with them.

3. Confidence booster

I felt my confidence grow significantly during my work experience, especially because some teachers gave me a lot of responsibility which made me feel as though they really trusted me. It also gave me confidence in asserting authority when needed to but also in knowing when to be more lighthearted and understanding that they're just kids.

4. A feeling of satisfaction

Even though I was only there for two weeks and these kids will probably have forgotten about me by next week (here comes the cliche but honest part), it was so humbling to feel that you're contributing to helping them to develop academically as well as personality wise - which leads me to my next point.

5. Future career plans

For a while now I've had teaching at the back of my head as a potential career path but teaching young children (particularly infants) didn't occur to me as being something I would want to do. After this experience, it's completely changed my mind and has made me feel that it's a job I'd very much enjoy doing and would be good at. This has made me have much more confidence in my future which is also a bonus!

Now that I've finished my work experience, I would really advise young people to get as much experience and take up as many opportunities as possible, it's always good to have too much to say on a CV, uni personal statement or college application than not enough and the skills that you'll acquire will be so so beneficial.