Work Experience Tasks

[cpjitservices]

When I was working at college as a Tech, I had young'uns under me, I'd actually take them on jobs with me that came in this could be anything like network problems/printers/laptops/PC's etc etc. They usually got given a limited admin guest account so that they could do basic stuff like change a password.

When we were upgrading the Nortel Switches we had the trainees putting the switches in the racks and showing them good cable / rack management etc. One lad bless him, had to call me so he could fix a printer he got really far to fixing it he had it printing again but it needed some alterations in Novell iPrinter so only I could do that but he worked like a champ, he was always running about the college doing little jobs.. He even got to look in the main server room once .

 

The way I looked at it was... The young trainees from school are actually wanting to be in IT, some of them were doing Cisco in school so to get hands on doing stuff was good. We had a test room also with some quite old Windows 2003 servers and machines in there. It was quite and ol store room but it was big so we'd send a couple of them in there and get them learning AD/DNS etc ... I think we put some of the old Nortels in there so they could get everything talking to each other.

 

It was good experience for them.

[FragglePete]

Get him to build a test network and go over the real basics of Active Directory and basic networking. I've been giving small 15 minutes talks to small groups of Yr 10s on the GCSE Computing, showing them the server room, etc and I ask them what any of them know what an IP address is - they all just look blank at me. It could be a real foundation for anyone who really wants to be in IT to understand the real basics of an ip address.

 

Pete

 

PS. Where are you @pslater ? I notice your avatar says Calne, Wilts - just down the road from where I live (Derry Hill).

[jonnykewell1]

get them to sort the screw tubs out

[happymeal]

I remember my Work Experience which consisted of brew runs, stuffing envelopes, and watching someone input invoices - needless to say I was bored!

 

What most employers should be doing is treating the person as if they are coming in to fill a role - so a full intro of the job, tasks, bit and bats - give them a good look into what it is you do and see if they want to become a mini-you.

 

What I've done in the past here is:

 

* Introduction to the Site we support

* Introduction to the Servers we use (ie what is saved on where, how to access it, etc)

* Introduction to the Software we support (standard Office, Exchange, bespoke software, etc)

* Introduction to how we support sites (remote desktop software - acceptable use/manners VS bad usage)

* Introduction to the hardware sites use (PC's, how the image is prepped and distributed, how you install it, how to repair WB's and projectors, etc)

 

That should take you about 2-3 days, then onto some basic troubleshooting methods and get them into the habit of trying to diagnose things and try to fix them.

Then get them to shadow someone "decent" for the next few days and go from showing them how to diagnose/repair/install to getting them to do it.

 

Also - an introduction to certifications would be a great help as well (as in what you need to start out, what you will need to do certain jobs ie network manager, Desktop Support, etc).

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I was lucky with mine. I did three weeks at a middle school in Mansfield (I guess the Mansfield but isn't that lucky!) got to help out in classes, take computer club at lunchtimes and do the art class with the other work experience placement. We also got to go on a couple of field trips. I don't think I made a single brew during my time there