Work Experience from Step's view

Over the past few years, we have had an increasing number of students join us for work experience. Some specifically chose Step, having had their interest piqued from something we may have run in their school, others are allocated us by the school, as schools know they can trust Step to take good care of them.

As a staff team we always look forward to having students join us. Terrie will sit down with the relevant school’s coordinator to plan a fun packed and enriching week for them. There are all sorts of logistics to work through: how we might get a student to a particular school; what admin jobs we have for them; do they come with a specific skill or interest that we want to tap into and so on. We take the whole thing very seriously, as we want both the students and Step to benefit.

This academic year alone we have had students from Marlborough, Samuel Ryder and Loreto join us, and all of them have been surprised at how much they have enjoyed their week. They have their eyes opened as to just what a busy organisation Step is and how passionate we all are about our Kingdom business.

The most recent students were from Loreto, and, in Chris’s words, it was “an absolute joy” to have them. They finished the week by writing a Latest News that you can read here https://www.stepschoolswork.org.uk/blog/2024/04/26/work-experience-beyond-expectation .

From our perspective we saw them grow in confidence and as the week went by, they asked more and more questions about what we do and why. When I asked them what had impacted them most, they said they were struck by how much of a team we were. One of them, who had explored our website beforehand, said she was expecting to see Chris and Geoff, as the Director and Associate Director, giving out instructions and “leading” us, and instead they saw us working collaboratively and with a lot of autonomy with regards to the schools we oversee. Also, they were both struck with how deep the conversations were between Step and students; they found Step to be open, curious and keen to hear from young people.  One of the girls had a different faith from Step and it was wonderful to hear how much she enjoyed the Christianity Unpacked Club at Sandringham, where she found herself reading the Bible and learning about Pentecost.

Having young people immersed into the life of Step has so many benefits. We often go on to see the students join us at our after-school events like Illuminate, sometimes even bringing along friends. The seeds we sow during these special weeks are probably more than we realise, and I feel sure that God will be watering them and making them grow. Work experience with Step usually exceeds a young person’s expectations and as a team, we certainly find Jesus exceeds our expectations in what He does in and through them.

Amy