work experience

[elerrina]

how long is the maximum your allowed to work on work experience, a few of my friends have been working for 11 hours and i just wondered if this was legal?
thanks

[lh8503]

Do u mean work experiance that you gain whilst at school? and are they doing 11 hours a day? If so I would say thats a big NO NO, not sure if its legal but the school should stop it, I'm at uni and on placement and my uni won't let me do that many hours a day!!! Sorry if I've totally misunderstood you x

[Buenchico]

I used to be involved in arranging work experience for Year 10 students. The usual policy was that the students would be expected to work the same hours as regular employees of the company, from Monday to Friday. However, there were normally 'common sense limits' applied to this and the paperwork which was completed by the employer would state the hours to be worked.

If a school or college has agreed to these long hours, then 'questions need to be asked'. Having said that, though, I was aware of situations where students worked the 'normal' hours as unpaid work experience but then worked additional hours for payment. As long as there were no safety implications (or other reasons why this shouldn't happen), the school raised no objections to such arrangements.

Chris

[derekpara]

I am a Work Experience officer for a large authority and can tell you that if you are a Year 10 student (Pre 16) you can be expected to work any eight hours between 7am-7pm.
There are exceptions however, which have to be accepted and agreed by the parents. For example, some placements with the military, eg , a mounted regiment, may require the student to report to the establishment by 6.30am to help groom the horses, in which case the student would finish between 3- 4pm .
Also, If you are working in a theatre your hours could be 2pm-10pm - which gives everyone a nightmare because of possible collection problems . But basically, Work Experience is meant to be about experiencing the work of the type of placement you have chosen ,and the hours that go with it.

[derekpara]

In answer to your question. If your freinds are under 16 and they are doing 11 hour days on work experience organised by the local authority then that is illegal. Are they exagerating ?

[elerrina]

no theyre not exaggerating they really did work 11 hours