Workie

This week, I've got a fabulous work experience girl with me who is the daughter of friends up the road (there you go, my hand is declared in that I know her).

I firmly believe in proper work experience opportunities for young people as I doubt any of us knew what we wanted to do when we left school - I never thought I'd do this.  Anyway, I love having her, she's calm, capable and does what I say which makes her perfect.

What I hated was the paperwork that now surrounds these placements.  Of course, no one wants to put a child in danger, but I work from home with no employees so we don't have Employers Liability Insurance (which I've had to take out for this week), we don't have the plugs and electrical appliances checked, the boiler hasn't been serviced in the last 12 months and no, the stock room (where I keep press samples) is not quite as H&S ready as perhaps they would like.

The coordinators at the school really can't have much on as they've been on the e-mail or attempting to phone every five minutes to see if I had sorted the insurance.  To be blunt I don't want to have insurance in place longer than I need to (as it's a business expense) so I did leave it until 4 days before she was meant to start.   However, I said I'd have it in place and I did but the e-mails between the school, the college (which was involved, I'm not sure how) and me went on and on.  Allegedly, the school reads out the names of the pupils in assembly who's companies haven't completed all their paperwork - why don't they just stick them on a stage with silly hats and point to them throughout break?

I'm a small business, I don't have staff because business can be uncertain and I've made people redundant in the past - it wasn't pleasant for either of us - and I don't want that expense or pressure right now.  I can't be the only business that is working hard, doing okay but keeping business finances tight, but it comes as no surprise to hear that my workie's friends are almost all in primary schools shadowing teachers.  A public enterprise has all the time and resources to tick the boxes.

I'm sure they don't all want to be teachers, but I'm equally sure I won't have a workie again and I bet many other small companies are exactly the same.  She lives up the road to me but I'm not allowed to take her to the station in my car so her mum is having to drive us both whilst the fear of God has been put into me when we go to London for a series of meetings on Friday.  I might wrap her in bubble wrap before we go.

Everyone knows that you won't get much done when you have someone shadowing you for a week so it's a real investment in time and energy into that person, time and energy that we need for business frankly.  Schools, don't make it even harder for kids to find their vocations.