A taste of work for local students at Reading Council

A group of nine students from King's Academy Prospect and John Madejski Academy (JMA) are spending this week at Reading Council to gain valuable work experience.

As well as a general introduction to the council, its values and its services, the students are getting a varied taster of the world of local government work, spending time with several different departments, including Transport, Health and Wellbeing, the Project Management team, Public Protection, Communications, Reading Museum and Planning. The students will also get involved with projects, learn CV and interview skills and benefit from coaching for future career paths.

The work experience week is part of our ongoing commitment to working with local schools to provide young people with experience and knowledge on which to build their future careers and to help enhance their personal and social development.

We are currently piloting an offer of different styles of work experience sessions across three fixed weeks of the year, working with secondary schools across the borough.

Gary, age 15, from JMA, said: “It’s been wonderful and inspirational shadowing council staff and seeing what they get up to in their day-to-day life. I have learned all kinds of things ranging from health and safety to how the council communicates with the public. This has opened my eyes to a lot of career options.”

The Council’s work experience scheme sits alongside its successful apprenticeship scheme, which has so far seen us take on 46 new apprentice employees and upskill 132 of our current employees using apprenticeship standards since the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017.

More information on work experience with the council. 

More information on apprenticeships at Reading Borough Council.