Lowerclassmen get sent out on tasks but mainly for manual labor. Shovel out the snow. Do some gardening. Go feed the peacocks. Mop the 31st floor. Their turn to cook dinner today. Or some sort of menial task like organizing books. No using your keyblade or magic to help. And i just know Eraqus would do anything by any means necessary to get out of it. Or half-ass it. The floor is "cleaned" but he just dumped a bucket of water and called it a day.
The Upperclassmen get sent on tasks in the abandoned citadels, mainly for archival purposes but also to salvage anything that could be of use like materials, books or tech. It's also useful for teaching them how to set up camps, and fine-tune other survival skills for before they set out for their mark of mastery. (Also they can't just go to the abandoned citadels as they please, they need written permission from council otherwise it's trespassing- either way it's always Odin that sets up these tasks. If they wantes to go there and asked council/Odin they'd just be met with a no.)
The Lowerclassmen get to do something similar, but under supervision and usually in areas deemed "safe" and cleared out, so nothing precious is damaged.
