Ielts writing exercise

Topic: High school students should participle in unpaid community work as a compulsory part of their high school programme. Do you agree?

Recently, an increasing number of universities intend to include one year work placement as an optional programme in order to strengthen students' workplace abilities and experiences. Furthermore, some parents recommend that senior secondary schools should also include unpaid community work as a compulsory activity of their children's high school programmes. Without a doubt, attending community work can provide students many opportunities to learn a lot that schools cannot teach. In a work environment, they need to communicate with different kinds of people in situations that they have never experienced before. These conversations with others can improve students' social and communication skills. Attending work placement can also significantly strengthen students' self-confidence. In the future, they will have greater confidence to face difficulties which they must solve. However, some people argue that the major responsibilities of high students are to focus on their academic studies and developing their own personalities. People believe that social interaction is somewhat complex and teenagers who have not yet fully developed their personalities should not be discouraged to engage in differing social situations. Moreover, setbacks that students have faced from community work may bring negative influences toward their self-esteem. Students may then easily give up when experiencing difficulties due to low self-esteem. 

To conclude, I believe attending community work for high school students as a must. Schools should rely on students' abilities to determine whether the student is capable of achieving goals and targets set by their job or work experience.