Stage

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# 14

TALKING ABOUT YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE

un stage = a work placement / a period of work experience ( See Bruce Robertson's discussion on the uses of these words. At the bottom of this page.)
un stagiaire = a trainee
a six-week unpaid placement

I worked with a firm of subcontractors specialising in car equipment
They produce a range of electronic machines
the R&D [Research and Development] department
I used CAD [Computer Aided Design] equipment
my tutor / supervisor...
I worked on my own
The staff were very friendly
I was in charge of sthg / V-ing
I had to reorganise the warehouse
My job consisted in reorganising...
I was asked to reorganise...
They made me reorganise
I carried out a study of the production line
I think it was a great experience
It gave me first-hand knowledge of life in a factory
It forced me to master new skills
It was not exactly as I expected [it to be]
Contrary to what I expected, I didn't get any pay!

.. et ajouter ici le vocabulaire spécifique à votre activité

v Introduce

§yourself (studies, future plans, ...)

§ the company (type of activity, location, assets, problems)

v Explain how you prepared your work experience.

§ how you chose / found the company;

§ what you expected from this experience.

v Describe

§your activities.
(Did you analyse a problem? Did you create / improve something? What tools did you use? What were your working hours? Did you work on your own or in a team?)

§ the problems you had to face (technical problems, human relationships, ...)

v Analyse the results

§ for the company (Will they use what you created? Did you change their way of working?)

§ for yourself:

in terms of professional skills (What did you learn / improve?)

in terms of personality: what qualities did you develop (self reliance, team-work, creativity, ...)?

what you liked and didn't like. Has it changed your attitude? your vision of working life? your choice of a career?
v Conclude by deciding if it was a positive / negative experience.

Contributed by Jean Roy

After going for a whirl on my concordancer, I have come to a few tentative conclusions concerning the usage of "work placement, internship, training course and work experience".

1. WORK PLACEMENT

General usage in British English

Collocations: accept, undertake, find a work placement to be on, on a placement

I have often heard "do" a placement in Somerset. At least I think I have... :-)

2. INTERNSHIP

In British English, internship tends to be used more in a medical context or a business context (to do with MBAs). Sometimes used to refer to American context. American usage includes both medical and non-medical contexts

Collocations take up an, do an, complete an, begins with an internship

3. TRAINING COURSE
Usually used with driving, computer, teacher, etc. Not work experience related.

Collocations: go on a, teach a, sponsor a, run a, undergo a

4. WORK EXPERIENCE

Seems more common in British English than the other terms. However, I found no examples of "a work experience".

Collocations: gain, have, do, be on
"But one graduate says that faking work experience is easy"

5. CONCLUSION

To translate "stage" I would use "gain work experience" (uncountable) or "placement" (countable). Although "work experience" is far more common in the corpora I have checked, "placement" is the word used by my colleagues in Britain.

Contributed by Bruce Robertson

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