Why offer work experience?

Offering a work experience opportunity to a young person is also highly beneficial for your business for a variety of reasons:

• Allows employers to get an insight into the type of skills a young person could offer your business.
• Early access to a new talent pool for recruitment into entry-level roles.
• Increase diversity in your workforce, ideally, we recommend that businesses aim to recruit a student through a school rather than through their own network.
• Increase brand visibility in the community 
• A fresh perspective on your business and processes
• An opportunity for members of your team to develop their own management skills
• Help with workload or a specific busy project

Make your work experience placement count

Typically, a work experience placement is a short-term opportunity for students aged 14+ who are in full-time education. Students do not normally receive payment for this work, but it is important to ensure that work experience is a clearly defined set of activities and would not be considered an employed position.  

Before the placement

• Work with your team to clearly define the scope of tasks that the student will be asked to complete.
• Ensure that the student will be able to try a range of different jobs around the business.
• Fill in this quick form about the type of work experience that you would be interested in offering.
• Undertake a quick risk assessment if you haven’t had a work experience student previously, remember the student is unlikely to have been in a work environment before.

During the placement

• Create an induction plan for the student and brief your team so that they can introduce themselves and make the student feel comfortable.
• Assign a buddy who will be responsible for the student and can answer any “everyday” questions.
• Be available to support any queries during the placement.

As the placement ends

• At the end of the work experience, take the time to meet with the student to get feedback on what did and didn’t work for them and what they learned.
• Stay in touch in a mentoring capacity and offer to act as a referee if relevant.
• Use learnings from previous placements to develop plans for future opportunities.