Work experience is scheduled for all year 10 pupils and your school will run sessions on the process, have a work experience coordinator, and require you to complete a placement form. Whilst there is plenty of support available, you are responsible for making the contact with employers to arrange the work experience. Your school or college will have a list of companies who have provided opportunities in the past, but also search the internet and speak to people you know, or who may know someone, that are involved in an area of work you are interested in.
Remember the practicalities, such as ensuring you can actually get to the employer for a probable start time of between 8 and 9am, as you will be expected to make your own travel arrangements.

Aimed at gaining a better understanding of the realities of work
Work experience is aimed at gaining a better understanding of both specific roles, but also of the realities of work in general. It normally lasts for one or two weeks, and you will probably be required to complete some sort of reflective diary of what you have done and learned. When applying, be realistic about what you are likely to be doing. You will probably have an element of work shadowing, where you observe what staff do, and you are likely to be otherwise involved in low level tasks that will enable you to assist the business in a practical way.

Give it plenty of thought
Some people have a clear career pathway in mind and so the type of work experience placement they are after is obvious to them, but what if you are less clear? In some ways it is probably more important that you really give this plenty of thought early on, in order that you can gain positives from the opportunity, and have some generic and transferable experience that you can reference in applications when you do decide what you want to do.
All jobs require, to one degree or another, common skills; written and verbal communication, teamwork, problem solving, analysis of information, initiative and enterprise, working under pressure, planning and organising, self-management, perseverance and motivation, continuing learning, numeracy, financial and business awareness, and the use of technology. If you are undecided about a specific career, plan to use the work experience as a means to develop your experience and demonstrate your ability in some of these key areas.

Identify an employer that can provide experience related to your passion
If you have a personal passion, but you can’t arrange something that exactly meets your interests, is it possible to identify an employer that can provide experience related to it in some way? Also remember that there may be age restrictions depending on the type of work sector you are interested in, but there is nothing to stop you independently arranging further work experience in school holidays when you are older.
Work experience may, or may not, confirm your interest in a specific career, but whatever the outcome it should be viewed as an opportunity to show that you have the traits that employers want to see in candidates.