Mater Dei Catholic College saw 110 students take part in work experience, which gave the year 10 cohort a chance to develop their employability skills and industry knowledge.

Clay De Paolo has spent his week at Kristopher Graydon Jewellers where he learnt the craft of handmade jewellery surrounded by two former year 10 work experience students.

"It's been great, I've learnt heaps and picked up a lot of skills that are useful," Clay said.

"I've wanted to be a jeweller for a while and it sounded fun, so I thought I might as well do it for my work experience.

"I just walked down the street and Paul was closing when I was there, so I talked to him and contacted him again a few weeks later to organise it."

The 15-year-old said while it has been a great experience, he is not 100 per cent certain if this is the career path he will take following school.

"You get an idea of what you want to do in the future; I'm uncertain about what I want to do, but this is definitely an option now," he said.

Clay was given basic tasks, such as heating and soldering items, rolling metal and making small rings as well as shadowing apprentices.

Manufacturing jeweller Paul Lucas said it not only is valuable to students, but also employers.

"Over the years we've had lots of work experience students and a lot of our apprentices have come from it," Mr Lucas said.

"It's a good step up into the trade, it's a good start for students and it gives us a bit of an insight into their work ethic.

"You can see it straight away as some work experience students are not interested and some are."

The college's training and pathways specialist Richard O'Connell said work experience is a critical pathway for young people to make connections in the industry.

"We find it very important for students in developing their skills in employability, networking, organisation, responsibility and time management," Mr O'Connell said.

"We get the students to organise work placement themselves and it's an important stage for students to have that conversation with their parents and myself about what is out there and what they can do.

"Year 10's are leading into subject selections so it's good for them to be able to chat about different professions, gain real life experience and feedback."

Mr O'Connell said not all students have stayed in Wagga for their placements, with one traveling to Sydney and another in Canberra with a fashion designer.

"It's really been left up to the creativity of students and their contacts and it hasn't just been for mainstream kids, we've also had students participate from our inclusive learning team which has been awesome," he said.

"We've also had three students at the RAAF Base, which has been the first year we've been able to do that, as well as five students doing various jobs out at Kapooka, including military police, military fire brigade and two in the hospital out there doing physio.

"It's a big ask for the local businesses and they're so generous with their time to support our students and many students will gain part time work or apprentices from it."