A student from Stratford-upon-Avon College has had her commitment to her work experience placement rewarded with permanent employment.
Chloe Hoskins, 17 from Alcester, has just completed the College’s two-year Childcare and Education course, which included over 750 hours of work experience at Alcester Nursery School. Chloe so impressed the nursery staff with her enthusiasm, dedication and work ethic that she was offered a job there and, having completed her College assignments early, she was able to start her permanent role at Alcester Nursery in April, working 9am-3pm every weekday.
During her placement, Chloe’s main role was to create activities to stimulate the children’s learning and development. Assigned to a different section of the nursery on a day-to-day basis, she had to carefully target her activities at the age range of the children she was working with, some of whom have special educational needs. “I learnt to prepare activities that are at a suitable level for nursery children. The tasks that are set for them can’t be too hard or too easy; they have to pitched just right otherwise they won’t do them!”
Her duties also included working with the other staff members to ensure the nursery was running as smoothly as possible, communicating with parents to report on their child’s progress, sitting with the children at snack time to encourage them to eat healthily, and in general being a positive role model to the children.
Chloe learnt a great deal from her work experience placement: not only how to create activities at the correct level, but also transferable team-working and communication skills, all of which doubtless contributed to the nursery’s decision to offer her permanent employment. “I leant to work as part of a team. Before I started at the nursery, I always preferred to work independently and struggled to communicate with people.”
She found the staff were always supportive and keen to explain things: “Even though I wasn’t a proper member of staff, I was treated like one which allowed me to gain a real understanding of what working there is like.”
Chloe is convinced it is important for students to complete work placements while they are studying. “Work experience allows students to relate something taught in the classroom to a real life experience. Transferring what you’ve learnt in a classroom into a workplace helps you to process the information and understand properly.
“I’m one of those people who can read something over and over again in a book and still not understand it. I need to experience something to learn it. My work experience has given me examples of real-work practice I can link back to in order to increase my understanding.”
Now, as a permanent member of Alcester Nursery staff, Chloe is thriving on the increased responsibility she has been given. We wish her well in her new job!
