Work Experience

Work experience sits at the heart of what we do at Orchard Therapeutic Farm. We believe that meaningful, real-world experience can play a powerful role in helping young people build confidence, independence and a clearer sense of their future.

For many young people with SEND, work experience offers something incredibly important: the chance to connect learning to real life.

It allows learners to develop practical skills in real environments, understand workplace expectations, build confidence through responsibility and begin to see themselves as capable, valued and able to contribute.

This becomes especially important as young people move through secondary and Post-16 education, where the focus increasingly shifts towards preparing for adulthood, independence and future pathways.

Real opportunities in a real environment

Set on a working farm, Orchard Therapeutic Farm offers a wide range of meaningful work experience opportunities through the everyday enterprises and operations that run across the site.

These may include:

working in our student-led café and coffee shop
supporting office administration
helping with marketing and creative projects
assisting with painting, decorating and site-based tasks
learning about health and safety and workplace routines
caring for animals
taking part in the running of the orchard, creamery, kitchen and wider enterprise activity

Because these opportunities sit within the rhythm of daily life at Orchard Therapeutic Farm, they feel natural, purposeful and genuinely useful.

Building confidence through contribution

One of the most valuable things about work experience is the way it allows young people to contribute to something real. Completing a task, following a routine, helping others, being part of a team and seeing the result of their effort can all have a huge impact on confidence and self-belief. These moments may seem small, but they often become important building blocks in a young person’s journey towards greater independence and adulthood.

A core part of Post-16 preparation

Every Post-16 learner has the opportunity to take part in work experience as a core part of their programme.

These experiences help prepare young people for the next stage of life, whether that is:

employment
further education or training
supported internships or apprenticeships
volunteering
greater independence and life readiness

At Orchard Therapeutic Farm, work experience is about helping young people build the confidence, responsibility and real-world understanding that supports them far beyond education, not simply about preparing for a job.

Take a look at how Work Experience is woven into our Learning Framework.