Workplace experiences

High-quality careers education as defined by the Gatsby Benchmarks requires dedicated employer engagement. Encounters with employers and experiences of the workplace are powerful learning experiences for young people.

Workplace experiences are evolving and modernising to provide young people with broader, more diverse opportunities to engage with the world of work. This extends beyond the traditional work experience placement to include innovative models such as workplace visits and embedded, employer-led projects. Engaging young people in quality, outcome focused workplace experiences younger, ideally from year 7, enables employers to have more impact.

When young people and employers work together with purpose there are benefits to both:

• Young people gain insight into the world of work – including the skills required. This helps them make future career decisions and builds motivation in the here and now.   
• Employers learn about their future workforce (and even begin the recruitment process).  
• Disadvantaged young people who have fewer connections and social networks disproportionately benefit from high quality interactions with employers.  

Best practice includes planning learning objectives (including skills young people are working on) in advance, using the experience as ‘real life assessment’ and building the experiences into the wider career-ready curriculum. 

Zoe Healey, Industry and Work Experience Lead at the CEC explores what the reinvention of workplace experiences looks like and benefits of meaningful, quality experiences moving forward.

Invite teachers into your workplace with Teacher Encounters 

A teacher encounter provides an opportunity for teachers to engage directly with employers to see and learn about the different career pathways relevant to their subjects, and to observe how their subject is applied practically in business.

Teacher encounters enable employers to widen their reach within education, support the development of their talent pipeline and develop their outreach to maximise impact.