Sixth form students from secondary schools across the borough have just completed a week’s work experience programme at Ealing Council.

The programme has been shortlisted for the ‘employability project of the year’ category in the Young Ealing Foundation Awards 2024 – a significant achievement and testament to the council’s work in partnership with Spark! charity to create work experience opportunities for local students.

Work experience is a great way for young people to get a glimpse into a career. We chatted 2 of the 16 pupils who took part in the council’s programme to find out what they thought about it.

‘I wanted to see what life is like after school’

Shiyaanth Rajasegaram attended Greenford High School and recently completed his A-levels there in maths, economics, and English literature. He plans to go to university to study politics and economics.

We asked what appealed to him about his work experience placement with West London Alliance. He said: “The first thing that came to mind when I was applying was that I will get a taste of the professional workplace. Spending time in school, you want to move on, you want to see what life is like after school.

“Would I consider working at Ealing Council in the future? Absolutely, it is something that I would be interested in.”

Keep an eye out for Shiyaanth’s video interview.

‘The council has more power than I thought’

Ashvinie Karunaharan is a student at Dormers Wells High School, Southall. She is currently studying her A-levels, and, like Shiyaanth, she plans to go to university, to study criminal law.

Ashvinie told us what her favourite part of the work experience programme was. She said: “The council has more power than I thought. They don’t just deal with things like parks and transport. We are doing a presentation on the alleyway in Haven Road, Ealing to design the alleyway to make it more child friendly and help prevent crime, such as sexual assaults and mugging.

“I found this project interesting because it is about crime and that’s what I want to do in the future.”

Keep an eye out for Ashvinie’s video interview.

Stepping up

The work experience programme was also an opportunity for some of the current apprentices at Ealing Council to ‘step up’ and become supervisors for the week.

Rachel Daniels, employment, learning, and skills apprentice, shared her experience. She said: “I found being a supervisor challenging, as I had to step up and take on additional responsibilities.

“I really enjoyed this experience. It was amazing to see the increase in the students’ confidence and professional growth. For example, by the end of the week, one student who had ambitions to improve their confidence for interviews was able to create and film a promotional video and deliver a presentation with another student.”

Now that she’s had a taster of management, we asked her if she would like to be a manager in the future. She said: “At a later stage, if the opportunity arises, I could see myself being a supervisor.  However, hats off to managers, it is not easy.”

Developing the next generation

Councillor Kamaljit Nagpal, the council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “It was fantastic to meet some of the sixth form students and hear their stories, which really brought home to me how valuable our work experience programme is.

“As part of our plan for good jobs, we will continue to support young people with employability skills, knowledge development, and experience through programmes like this, so that they are better prepared to effectively transition into the workplace.

“If hearing Shiyaanth and Ashvinie’s stories has inspired you to find out more about jobs and apprenticeships at the council, go to the jobs section on the council’s website.