harlow square
when i did my work experience at school, i was forced to do a 2 week stint at radio rentals (or something similar). it was toss, spent the first 4 days in a shirt and tie, cleaning their incredibly filthy stock room. i walked out on the first friday, never to return.

HOWEVER, a year or two later, i joined a 'lifeskills' course at the local college. We basically spent 5 days a week, having a good laugh with our course tutor (sarah, you rock!), learning how to be self-sustaining (i.e. how to cook, write CVs, and improve yourself). there are many stories i can tell from these days, but the best was work experience.

On this course, after doing 1 full 'term', you could choose to do work experience, anywhere you liked, as long as the employer agreed.
at the time, we did 1 day a week at the local rock venue, the square, for doing 'classes' on public performance, and how to generally just learn the courage to stand up in front of a crowd of people and perform.
Well, i asked to do some work experience there, 3 days a week. they agreed, and, to this day, i remain the only person to ever do 12 weeks work experience at said venue, which included:

- Free entry to every gig while working there, and many since
- Being put in charge of other work experience kids (who didnt have much interest being there anyway), and making them put flyers into envelopes, seal them, stick on a label and stamp. for 2500 letters. while i went and 'cleaned the beer lines' with the bar manager :D
- Working on their new website
- Booking bands, and buying their riders (i.e. cases of booze) from Tesco, then helping them dispose of it later that evening.
- Learning how to use a sound desk and lighting rig

all in all, possibly the best time of my life :D
Sadly, the local council are now, pretty much, killing the place off :(
( lo, the Greebo Warrior - Est. 2002, Thu 10 May 2007, 12:47, Reply)