It’s an age-old problem: employers want to hire people with work experience, young people need work experience but can’t get it, employers still want to hire people with work experience, young people still need work experience but can’t get it.

This catch-22 has an obvious solution: employers offering young people work experience placements.

But while the solution is obvious, the path to get there isn’t always clear. Which is where the Buckinghamshire Skills Hub comes in.

The problem

Skills development is vital to creating the conditions for sustained innovation and growth for Buckinghamshire’s businesses.

The Buckinghamshire Local Skills Report identified the lack of work-readiness of school leavers in Buckinghamshire as a key challenge. This challenge was evident before the pandemic and has only been exacerbated since.

Benefiting both the individual and the employer, work experience:

• Helps the individual decide what kind of work they are most suited to
• Helps employers by upskilling current staff to advise and mentor young people
• Helps the individual gain employment after graduating
• Helps employers to show off their company and sector in a positive light, increasing the pool of young people who want to work in your sector
• Helps the individual learn intangible qualities like punctuality and how to work with others
• Helps employers showcase themselves as a great place for young people to learn on future work placements
• Helps the individual apply things they’ve learnt in education to a practical setting
• Helps employers by bringing fresh energy and ideas into their workplace
• Helps the individual make connections that could benefit them later
• Helps employers to prepare the next generation for future challenges – playing their part in a supportive inter-connected society
• Helps the individual with their studies

The solution – and how to reach it

That’s a lot of benefits. Now, how to get there.

The Buckinghamshire Skills Hub connects the dots between employers and young people, working with local schools, colleges and universities to ensure the best outcome for all.

One of the partners that the Bucks Skills Hub works with is the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC). CEC has published a step-by-step guide to show employers how they can run a successful work experience placement, whether remotely/virtually or face to face.

This ‘how to’ guide encourages employers to join forces with schools and colleges to help provide the work placements that were lost to the pandemic.

As mentioned, Bucks Skills Hub is the connecting force between the two in Buckinghamshire and the team can help employers get on the right track. Contact the Bucks Skills Hub team to learn more about the opportunities for employers: WorkforceSkills@bbf.uk.com / 01494 927130.

How to create and promote your work placements to young people

Unfortunately, despite the benefits, there is a real shortfall of work experience placements on offer in Buckinghamshire.

But employers in Buckinghamshire that want to offer work placements have the perfect support system around them.

We can help you offer work experience placements

We are asking employers to let us know if they can offer work experience - and we are letting employers know that via the Buckinghamshire Skills Hub website*, we will broadcast their work experience offer to thousands of young people in Buckinghamshire!

Fill in this quick form about the type of work experience that you would be interested in offering. This will help our team understand what you can offer, and they will then take you through the next steps.

IMPORTANT: We can also help you with the planning of any work experience you offer. Simply tick the relevant box on the form when you see this question.

We expect you’ll still have some questions about offering work experience, so the best thing to do is to fill in the form and our team will be able to get in touch with you to discuss it further.

*The Buckinghamshire Skills Hub website is a one-stop shop for all skills and career-related advice in Buckinghamshire. The website is firmly on the radar of local schools and colleges, which means it is firmly on the radar of young people searching for work experience.

Want to offer something similar to work experience?

Work placements aren’t the only game in town if you want to provide experience of the workplace for young people. Internships and apprenticeships are examples of some other great options.

Not sure what the difference is between a work placement and an internship? Get in touch with the Bucks Skills Hub team and they will help point you in the right direction:

• Visit the Bucks Skills Hub webpage
• Call: 01494 927130
• Email: WorkforceSkills@bbf.uk.com