What do you need to ask yourself as an employer offering work experience of the highest quality?
Perhaps you are already a Youth Friendly Employer, or in the process of applying for the Youth Friendly Employer Award. Or perhaps you’re an employer aiming to create or develop a work experience programme that benefits your business and makes a difference.
Youth Friendly organisations understand that young people benefit from a range of work experience opportunities including work shadowing, short work experience placements or other forms of work experience. Taking place on employer sites, these experiences support young people to develop skills and understanding of the world of work. Your organisations can also really benefit from the exchange, as running effective work experience programmes can provide great opportunities for developing staff, engaging with new ideas and future customers – as well as providing a pipeline for engaged future recruits.
Asking yourself these questions will help you provide meaningful work experience that really meets your organisation’s needs.
Why do you want to offer work experience?
Your answer might reference CSR, responding to requests, future talent pipelines, or developing existing staff… knowing why you want to offer work experience will help your organisation shape and tailor it to meet your goals and expectations.
Who will you offer it to? How many opportunities can you create?
Not all young people are the same, and some marginalised young people will be in desperate need of the glimpse of the working world you can offer. For example, your work experience opportunities could be offered to secondary schools, college or university students, or those young people not in education, employment or training. Make sure you think about the eligibility and inclusiveness of your experience.
What formats can you offer?
Work experience can come in numerous forms. Typical work experiences offered by employers tend to be:
- Work shadowing
- Work experience placement for 1 or 2 weeks
Is the experience for a specific role or more generally within the business?
Think about where the young person will work, and what you have the capacity to deliver.
Do you plan for work experience students to stay engaged with your business and potentially apply for future roles?
Consider how you may want to use work experience as a future recruitment tool.
Who needs to be involved in the process within the organisation?
Who is the lead contact? Do line managers need to be engaged and supported? Can someone act as a work experience buddy to help young people acclimatise to the working environment more smoothly during their experience?
How will you manage and support the student?
Research, document and action:
- Inductions
- Clear tasks
- Links to learning outcomes
- Feedback
- References at the end of the experience
- Dealing with problems that may arise
Have you considered all the practicalities?
The following elements are vital to consider:
- Health and safety
- Risk assessments
- Insurance
Do you know what you have in place, and what a business of your size/industry needs to have covered?
Ask yourself the right questions as an employer and you’ll be well-placed to deliver top-quality work experience that will benefit not only young people in real need of your support but also you, your staff and your business.
- See also: Work Experience Employer Guide
- See also: Work Experience Checklist for Employers
Youth Friendly Employer Award
Are you committed to attracting and developing a diverse future workforce? Apply now for the Youth Friendly Employer Award:
- A quality kitemark for employers
- A powerful recruitment & development tool
- Attract candidates for apprenticeships & early careers
Be recognised as a high quality youth employer and reach a motivated and diverse future talent pool.
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As experts on youth employment and co-founders of the Youth Employment Group, we are ideally placed to understand the complex landscape facing young people, employers and policy makers.