ACS AsiaPac interviews
Madam Chia Loy Tian
Principal Wesley Methodist School
1) When did this initiative start?
This programme which we named Work Experience Programme (WEP) was started last year in 2011 when I took over the headship of the school.
2) Is it optional that a student participates?
It is not optional; I have made it compulsory for all Form 4 students.
3) What % of the students would normally obtain placement?
Hence, ALL students will get placement.
4) Who initiates the placement/identification of a suitable employer?
We source out suitable companies for our students' placement through various means: our own contacts, parents, friends and relatives we know etc. Many parents are very supportive of this programme and have volunteered their own companies for placement too.
5) Are the students required to submit a report/log book of their work experience?
Yes, students are advised to keep a log/journal of their work experience. However, they are also required to fill up a "Self-Assessment Form" which has to be passed up to the teachers at the end of the WEP. Besides that, each group of students out in specific placement are to also prepare a report and slideshow presentation of their WEP which will then be presented to the whole Form 4 during a debriefing session which will be held on the first day they are back from the WEP. All reports and presentation will be in both hard and soft copies for further reference.
6) What do you see different in the students behaviour/confidence level post work experience?
After the WEP (from last years’ experience), the students definitely come back with a bigger and better perspective of what the working world is like besides also displaying greater confidence in the way they speak and carry themselves. What is more important is that they learn things which they will never learn in the classrooms. Many realised that the working world needs lots of discipline, hard work, and good communication skills and in many places also deep knowledge of the work concerned.
7) You message to future potential placement providers?
My message for future potential placement providers: Do give us the opportunity to place our students there for this WEP. The students are high achievers, talented, disciplined and eager to learn. This work experience will open a new world to them, to allow them to think of skills needed in the working world so as to better prepare them for life after school and college/university.
8) Your Vision in this regard?
My vision is for the students to live up to the school motto: "Above and Beyond" where the students will always strive beyond what they can achieve and to continuously strive far above what they can excel in. The school wishes to produce students who do not only excel in academics, but also in extra-curricular activities and growing up with character worthy of praise. I hope that this WEP will be a start for students to be more aware of the demands of a working world which will then spur them to learn how to be more confident, self-assured, have better inter-personal and communication skills. I would also like to add that there is an appraisal by the placement companies of each student at the end of the WEP. Before the students were sent out, we had someone from the corporate sector to come into school to talk to the students on etiquette of working world like dressing, manners, interpersonal skills, decorum etc. During the whole duration of this WEP, I have teachers to go out to the placement companies to visit the students to find out how they are faring.
Read how two Form 4 boys, Keshav & Justin sought to be placed at Sime Darby Auto-Connexion's Ford outlet for their work experience program.
Work Experience Photo Gallery
