Reinventing Work Experience—It's ‘WORTH’ It!

Hertfordshire Careers Hub was recently involved in a pilot project, funded through Careers and Enterprise Company, to explore new innovative ways to provide secondary school students with meaningful experiences of a workplace.

The project ran throughout the 23-24 academic year and consisted of a research exercise conducted by Amazing Apprenticeships and a series of activities coordinated by Services for Young People that saw over 1700 students experience the real-life workings of a Hertfordshire workplace. 

The concept of ‘Work Experience’ is not new, but our research highlighted how many schools and employers only consider the traditional 5-day work block, which we learnt is increasingly unsustainable because many employers now operate remote or hybrid working patterns and schools have diminished funding and resources available to arrange.

As a result, it is vital to consider different models that may include half-day or one-day visits, groups of local businesses providing a carousel of experiences and encounters with employees that can be just as impactful as a full-week. The new government is currently looking into work experience and is likely to put greater emphasis on all students gaining more experiences throughout their education.

It has been proposed that all students should gain 10 days ‘worth’ of work experience (equivalent to 50 hours), and we await further detail about how this might look, but we know that the types of models trialled within our project can be effective.

To learn more about The Careers and Enterprise Company’s developments around Work Experience (and their Equalex model), please follow this link: equalex | The Careers and Enterprise Company

The Careers Hub has commissioned a video to showcase some of the best examples, and we encourage all businesses to watch and consider how they might be able to open their doors to individuals or groups of students.

Our thanks to all participating schools and employers featured and also to all of those involved in the project last year.

If your business could provide a workplace experience, please contact us for further information. [email protected]