Career Talks

WORK EXPERIENCE

Enable students to understand what it means to be part of the world of work and learn the culture of a company first-hand with work experience.

We understand that your time as an educator is limited, which is why we have made our service as quick and easy as possible.

We offer two easy ways for students to take part in work experience placements; through SuperPower and through our Sustainable Futures Programme.

EDUCATOR GUIDANCE

SUSTAINABLE FUTURES

What is Work Experience?

The traditional model of work experience is changing. As companies move to more remote locations and time is limited, placements have had to adapt to meet this change. Through Workfinder and Sustainability Placements, students can access virtual and in-person flexible options for work experience.

Placement delivery could include:

Block placements - a day, 3 days, a week
Extended Placements - one day a week over a term
Workplace Shadowing - shadowing an employee for a day
Insight Days - a taster day for a group of students, or tour of the workplace
Internships - 1-3 month opportunities

Are you looking for Work Experience for school leavers?

If so, encourage them to directly sign up to the Superpower platform (external site) our affiliate partner for work experience opportunities for 17+ years old.

Superpower gives young people access to skill-building, career-defining, and real work experience with fast-growing innovative companies. They can upskill with access to online courses and benefit from masterclasses and industry mentors while on the job. Develop key employability and technical skills that they can not learn in a classroom.

Are you a business looking for help to set up work experience projects? click here to see how we can help

What is the impact of Work Experience?

It offers a range of benefits for young people, such as providing:

Insight into the world of work that improved their ability to make decisions about the future,
Helps them to understand workplace ‘norms’ and behaviours, and different sorts of workplaces;
Career-relevant skills valued by employers including communication, teamwork, resilience and confidence, and;
If done right, offers improved long-term careers outcomes, including wage-premiums, employability, and a reduced likelihood of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).

The CBI found nearly one-third of employers rank work experience among their top three factors when recruiting school and college leavers, alongside broader skills like resilience, communication and time management. In their opinion, work experience not only shapes a young person’s decision about their future career, but also prepares them for the modern world.

Read our report on Making Work Experience Fit for Purpose

Morag McLoughlan, Service Manager For Schools, Learning and Education at Stirling Council

“The job situation’s changing so rapidly that there’s a whole plethora of jobs out there that young people have no cognisance of. …The jobs we’re doing today won’t be the jobs that they’ll do tomorrow, and so it’s about widening [young people’s] appreciation of that.”

Chris Percy, Strategy and Research Contractor, the Careers and Enterprise Company

“The people that don’t have such strong social capital and don’t know people who can help them in the jobs market tend to benefit more from employer support than others”

Pupil, Stirling High School

“I think like for me one of the biggest challenges was building my confidence to be able to talk to people who I'm not usually comfortable with. …So it was good to like build my confidence to talk to different people that I've never met before.”

Useful research & resources

In 2019 we commissioned research looking at how educators and policymakers could make Work Experience Fit for Purpose. This report was accompanied by further research into understanding the most appropriate interventions for young people throughout their educational journey.

From our research we found that this encounter type is most appropriate for the development of young people from ideally 16 and up as they are approaching decisions about post-16 or post-18 education future.

Read both reports to get more information and context.

Download Making Work Experience Fit for Purpose

Download Making Careers Education Age Appropriate

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