Transition Times: An RTÉ camera crew made going on work experience even more unusual than normal for the students who feature in 'No Experience Required Transition Year', reports Gráinne Faller

Imagine landing your ideal work- experience placement. You're guaranteed a challenging and varied few days during which you can find out about the job you want to do. It sounds ideal, but, of course, there's a catch. You'll have to contend with cameras and lights following you wherever you go. They'll film your successes but also your failures, and the whole thing will be broadcast on national television afterwards.

Would it put you off? You might remember the RTÉ series No Experience Required. It gave adults a chance to win a six-month work placement in a job they had always wanted to do. The competition was based on raw talent, and nobody had to have any experience - hence the name.

Realising that transition-year students are often in a similar position when they look for work experience - they can offer talent and enthusiasm but little else to an employer - the production team decided to make a version of No Experience Required for them. The placements were attractive. Radio broadcasting, hotel management, engineering, sports physiotherapy and public relations were all available.

Daniel Carroll, a student from Malahide, in Co Dublin, saw the programme being advertised on RTÉ2's TTV. "As soon as they mentioned radio my ears pricked up," he says. "I went and found the application form and sent it in."

Once students had submitted their applications, they had to wait and see whether they would be selected for interview. It would take a few rounds for students to be whittled down to just three, who would each complete three days of work experience. Whoever performed best would go on to do a full week of work experience later in the year.

The television cameras were present from the start. "You just had to remember not to look at the cameras when you were talking to people," says Nikita O'Connell, one of the students on the engineering placement. "It was awkward to begin with."

Kate Fennell, the producer of the programme, conducted the interviews. "Most people were fine once they got into the room. There were shy ones, all right, and some of them went through to the second round of interviews, but often they didn't get through to the placement itself. Shyness doesn't really work in an interview situation."

Sinéad Burke couldn't be accused of shyness, but at the start of her work experience at RTÉ 2FM she felt slightly overwhelmed. "On the first day we had to produce our own show," she says. "We had to come up with the theme and the music, everything. We recorded the shows on the second day. Nikki Hayes was in the other studio, doing her live show, while we were doing that."

The programmes were part of a challenge that No Experience Required Transition Year asked the students' bosses to set. Each placement set similar challenges, and the students were given anything but an easy time. "We asked the bosses to make the challenges harder than they thought the students would be capable of doing," says Fennell. "Everyone was so surprised at how well the students rose to it."

The engineering students had an interesting task. You may have heard of the proposal for a cable car to run along the Liffey - it has been dubbed the Suas. The students on work experience at Roughan & O'Donovan Consulting Engineers, in south Dublin, had to submit a design for the cable car and present it to the project manager of Liffey Cable Car Company.

"It was a fantastic challenge," says Nikita. "Once we settled into it, it was quite approachable."

The bosses were impressed. Paul Mitchell supervised the engineering students. "We asked around the office about whether people felt that they could do the exact same thing as the students did inside of three days," he says. "The answer was universally 'No way!' "

On the final day of the radio placement, the students were sent out on the streets to ask people in Westport, Co Mayo, about the area. "Doing a vox pop is difficult enough," says DJ and boss Ruth Scott. "But we made them do it with a camera crew! They all did it, though. There were no dramatics or tears."

Sinead says of the vox pop: "It was hard at first, because you'd get a lot of people saying 'No thanks' and a lot of 'Oh, we're from New York', with all the tourists around. But it was really good."

The experience was an eye-opener. "The amount of effort and preparation that goes into a show was something that was a bit unexpected," says Daniel. "You might think that presenters have a handy time," agrees Sinéad. "But that's not the half of it."

The Big Brother aspect didn't seem to faze the students. "After a while you just ignore the cameras," says Nikita. "I got used to them being around. After a while, when I got to know the people behind the cameras, I had to stop myself from joking with them when they were filming."

Daniel says: "You don't know how to react when you're being interviewed about every little thing. I was a bit paranoid at how they might edit it. Hopefully, it'll be okay."

So has the experience influenced what they want to do in life? Nikita is still interested in civil engineering. "I was initially more interested in electronics and that end of things, but there's a lot of that involved in civil engineering. I'm starting to look at my options. Engineering or psychology would be the main ones at the moment."

"As soon as I went in and put the headphones on it felt natural," says Daniel, who has been bitten by the broadcasting bug. Sinéad also loved the radio experience. "It would be great to do radio broadcasting or communications. I'm keeping my options open," she says.

No Experience Required Transition Year is on RTÉ2 from Mon Oct 30 to Fri Nov 3 at 12.35pm. The first four will be repeated at 4.30pm the next day

So you want to work in radio?

Ruth Scott, who presents More Music Drive on RTÉ 2FM, was one of the bosses in No Experience Required Transition Year's radio placement.

"You're always looking for the X-factor: that something you can do something with. On the production side we were looking for someone with loads of ideas. Some of those ideas will get panned, though, so you need someone who's robust enough to take that. We were looking for some talent on air, and someone personable, because you're always dealing with people.

"I get a massive number of e-mails from students saying: 'Can I get work experience in RTÉ?' But they just don't give work-experience placements like they used to. I would actually say that you're better off in a local radio station. In a big place like RTÉ you'll most likely be told to shadow somebody for the week, so you'll get to see what that one person does.

"In a local station you can hang out on reception for a day, spend a day in the newsroom and spend time in the production studio, where they make the ads and promos. You get a much broader feel for radio.

"And try student radio or hospital radio. You won't get paid, but it's great experience, and that's what makes the difference."

More Music Drive with Ruth Scott is on RTÉ 2FM, Mon-Fri 4pm-6pm

Not just number-crunching

What makes a good engineer? Paul Mitchell, a senior bridge engineer at Roughan & O'Donovan Consulting Engineers, was one of the bosses for No Experience Required Transition Year's engineering placements.

"An engineer normally has an inquisitive nature. We would have looked for a strong aptitude in the sciences and maths in the interviews. We were looking for people who had approached and solved problems before. We were really looking for kids that would have had some relevant experience in the past. One girl had run a company that sold bean bags. She had to source materials and other things that were relevant. We were judging entirely on raw talent, really.

"The students that came to us were assessed in every aspect, from problem-solving to selling a solution in a presentation. Time management and meeting deadlines are huge elements of it. We had one girl who initially performed extremely well but who fell down on the time-management end.

"There are specific skills that are needed for engineering, such as a good sense of spatial relations. The students had to draw and make models during their challenge. Report-writing is important, and presentation skills are very important. There is number-crunching, but engineering is not just about the numbers."