Watch The Work Experience

The Work Experience is a British reality television series that premiered on E4 in 2012. The show follows a group of young adults who are given the chance to experience a variety of job roles through placement schemes across a broad range of industries. The participants are aged between 18-24, and have little to no experience in their chosen fields.

Throughout the series, the participants are taken out of their comfort zones and are placed into work environments that challenge them both mentally and physically. Each episode focuses on one job role as the group try their hand at tasks as diverse as zookeeping, firefighting, becoming an estate agent, and more. Along the way, they battle nerves, frustration and exhaustion as they put themselves to the test in roles that they would otherwise never have been able to experience.

At the start of each episode, the participants are introduced to their new workplace and the colleagues they will be working alongside. They are given a brief introduction to the job at hand before being thrown straight into the deep end, with each task requiring a different set of skills and knowledge. The show explores the various challenges they face, from physical hardship to navigating complex social dynamics.

Many of the participants are surprised by the amount of work that goes into each job role, often finding themselves struggling with the long hours and early starts that are the norm in the industry. For example, one episode sees the participants working as zookeepers, waking up before dawn to clean out the animal enclosures and taking care of the animals