Work Experience is real.

Back when I was in school, which is a long time ago, work experience meant that you chose an industry you thought you might like to work in and you went there for a week to do such important jobs as filing, making coffee and sweeping floors. In my home town there weren't many places to choose from so it made no difference where you went. You'd still be filing, sweeping floors and making coffee. This week Maya has been doing work experience at Rave Magazine - a widely read music review publication.

I fully expected to hear on her first day that she had been given the important title of "General Office Assistant", meaning she would be filing, sweeping floors and making coffee. I wasn't prepared for the excitement I was greeted with when I picked her up on her first day. She had done anything but the usual jobs earmarked for work experience kids. She had transcribed interviews, written band interview questions (which will be featured in the next issue), proofread interviews and copy, written a band review (which will be featured in the next issue)and filed (yes a little) all the free CDs they receive and she was able to choose any she wanted to keep.

She's been on cloud 9 and the whole experience has made her feel very proud of herself. None of her friends chose to do work experience and she's now feeling as though she's experienced something they won't - an opportunity to work on a widely read music publication and be really involved.

The Rave Magazine shopfront isn't much - it's an old house set in amongst office buildings in an industrial area which is located in a thriving multi-cultural suburb. There's only a few employees but all of them dedicated to what they do. The first day I collected her I made a joke about having her sweep floors and make coffee. They all looked at me as though I was mad and they didn't get the joke. They told me they prefer properly brewed coffee from the coffee shop around the corner and that someone comes in to sweep floors. They seemed to genuinely believe that if you have requested work experience in a place such as that you should have the opportunity to see how it really works. Maya is now convinced more than ever that she wants to be a music journalist and has even asked if she can stay in touch with them to occasionally write freelance reviews for them. She does a great job and is so much more sophisticated than I was at her age. She makes me very proud.