Some people suggest that children do not understand the world of work and schools should make all teenagers spend a short time working as well as studying academic subjects. To what extent do you agree?

Nowadays some schools offer work experience in addition to normal study, giving students the chance to gain some insight into real working situations while also having more traditional academic qualifications. Some employers have recently suggested that young people can graduate from school or university lacking the necessary tools to survive in the world of employ. In my opinion, whilst it is essential that young people gain qualifications, it is also important that they develop a conscious of what will be expected from them in a job. For this reason I think it is a good sense for teenagers to make some work experience as part of their education. Of course, having qualifications will always be assets but only if the young person is also able to adept quickly to the expectations of their employer. There is no benefit in being exceptionally qualified if you don't know what to do on a daily life. By doing work experience, even if it is only making the coffee or photocopies, young people will quickly learn work based skills such as time management and ability for dealing with people of all ages. Furthermore, having work experience demonstrates diligence in a real working context, making the student more employable. Not only does it give them a valuable advantage, it also offers them insight too; they are able to see what certain types of job entail at close range which will enable them to make an informed choice about their plans for the future. Of course there are some small drawbacks to the idea of work experience; students might get distracted by work and not study. However this is outweighed by the gains made by gaining the experience. Overall it is therefore a good idea for students to do some kind of work experience.