Topic: Work Experience
Company name: Paradise Park
Scheme partner: National Council for Work Experience (NCWE)

About NCWE
The National Council for Work Experience is part of HECSU, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit. It promotes, supports and develops quality work experience for the benefit of students, organisations and the economy.

About Paradise Park
Paradise Park is a tropical bird garden that now also houses otters, red pandas, native red squirrels and the rare Cornish Chough. The park has been trading as a breeding centre for rare and endangered birds and a tourist attraction for nearly 35 years.

Total number of employees
Over 25 people including bird keeping staff, gardeners, café staff etc.

Operational countries
Paradise Park is based in Hayle, but operates in many countries with reference to the World Parrot Trust.

Challenge
Often work experience is marred with images of tea-making and filing, but this is not the case with modern work experience programmes. Employers today face the challenge of implementing and maintaining a quality programme that benefits both the company and the individual. Structured programmes can enable companies to complete projects, recruit new employees and allow the student invaluable workplace experience.

Project name
Work experience programme.

Project manager
Jill Thrower, senior keeper and work experience co-ordinator.

Responsibilities
Organising and coordinating the work experience programme.

Length of scheme
Paradise Park have been offering work experience placements for over 20 years.

Work experience structure
• Paradise Park can tailor the work experience programme to fit with individual’s requirements.

• Currently the park is focusing on placements for over 16-year-old students, who come from all over the country. 

• Paradise Park benefit from a link with the local Agricultural College www.duchy.ac.uk, where they take students from NVQ Level one courses through to Foundation Degree students and undergraduates.

• All students wishing to take part in the programme must go through an initial interview and induction process.

Benefits
• Paradise Park has employed a number of students who have previously worked with them on a work experience placement.

• From the point of view of the park, it's useful to get to know students before they are offered a full-time job.

• It's also useful to take on employees who are ‘pre-trained’.

• Students benefit from first-hand experience of working in a very different environment to office based placements. Their experience is varied and dependent largely on what the student themselves wants to get out of it.

Results
• Paradise Park are finalists in the ’10-250 Employees’ category at the 2008 NCWE Awards.

Lessons
• Due to the nature of the work at the park, there must be fairly strict guidelines on what students should and should not be doing in terms of health and safety etc, which need to be included in a thorough induction on the commencement of the placement.

Future plans
• Paradise Park have stopped offering placements to schools, but aside from that the formula that is already in place is effective and so there are no plans to change it in the immediate future.

Key tips

1. Be patient with the placement students – they are learning new skills and will benefit from your patient guidance.

2. Offer a good quality placement with a variety of tasks and plenty of hands on experience.

3. Treat the students as you would like to be treated yourself in a similar situation, while they are working with you they are a member of your team.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The National Council for Work Experience is part of HECSU, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit. It promotes, supports and develops quality work experience for the benefit of students, organisations and the economy. Its role includes disseminating information and good practice, encouraging the development of quality standards and encouraging more employers to provide placement opportunities. NCWE run an annual awards scheme to encourage and reward organisations that display good practice in work experience.


National Council for Work Experience and the Quality Mark accreditation scheme:
T: 0161 277 5267
E: workexperience@prospects.ac.uk
www.work-experience.org


ADDRESS:

National Council for Work Experience
Prospects House
Booth Street
Manchester
M13 9EP