What does our IT department do, how do I build a shelf and how are prices calculated in the canteen? These and many other questions can now be answered by our small group of work-experience students after they started their mini-internship last Tuesday. The group consists of pupils in Years 7 and 8 who have not chosen French as a subject. Before they started their mini-internships, we focused intensively on recognizing personal strengths to be able to use them later when choosing a career. We listened to exciting presentations about dream jobs and reflected on whether individual skills matched them. We talked about training opportunities in Germany and Kenya and how to deal with adults in the workplace. Conflict resolution and taking responsibility in the workplace also feature in the sessions. Finally, a key topic is how to become a good team player
Bente Caspersen
Teacher
“I particularly like labor studies because we not only learn a lot but also have fun at the same time. After completing our work, we play team games to strengthen our teamwork. We not only delve into issues relating to universities and internships but also explore different professional fields that adults work in. This allows us to try out different jobs and discover and develop our skills. We have an intensive exchange about what skills we have and how we can best use them to achieve our professional goals.”
“Labor Studies is a great subject and we learn different things. I like this subject because we don’t always do the same thing, but also something new and lots of projects. In Labour Studies, we are currently doing small practicals by visiting different workplaces. I’ve already done practicals in finance and in the kitchen. In Accounting I learnt how to pay for things like furniture and places in the school. She pays the workers and collects the income from the school costs. In the second internship, I was in the kitchen. I made popcorn and filled it into paper bags. Then I was in the cafeteria office. There I looked for popcorn kernels at Carrefour. Then I had to work out how much 300 grams of popcorn kernels cost. It costs 120 Ksh. for 300 gr. and the school makes a big profit selling popcorn. Those were the two practices I did so far.”
“I like labor studies because we do fun things like trades. I was with Elkana in transport and he told me who the manager of transport is and who maintains the buses and cars. Then I went to Martin to do the “Carpenter” job. He showed me what he does and what tools he works with. Then we built a shelf.”
“I like the subject of Labour Studies because we always do something exciting and fun and it’s also fun because there aren’t that many of us. At the moment we are doing small internships on the school compound and after the internship, we tell each other in class about our experience during our mini internship. At the end, we reflect on whether the job suits us or not. The internships are a lot of fun because you can try things out for yourself. For example, I was in IT and William first told me what IT is in general and then he showed me how to open a computer and what a computer looks like on the inside. He also showed me the hard disc. It was very exciting in IT and I’m already looking forward to the other mini-internships that are still to come. In class, we have to say whether we have the skills you need for the job. The lessons are also fun because we sometimes play group games.”
