If you’ve been thinking about offering work experience but aren’t sure where to begin, now is a great time to start.
Under new government guidelines, every student should have multiple workplace experiences throughout their education. Gone are the days of a two-week placement in Year 10 being the only option available – there are now multiple ways for employers to offer meaningful experiences throughout secondary school.
For businesses, this creates more opportunities to engage with young people, and flexibility in how you participate. Not only are you giving young people a chance to gain real-world skills, you’ll be introducing the next generation to your sector and identifying future talent early. So the benefits go both ways.
If you think you could offer meaningful work experience for secondary school students, here are five steps to get started with work experience in your small business.
- Identify what you can offer
Start by looking realistically at your capacity. If you’ve felt unable to offer a full-week placement in the past, one of the new options may work well for you. Businesses can offer a two-hour or half-day site visit with talks and workshops, a workplace safari with other businesses, work shadowing in-person or virtually, as well as a hands-on project over a few days.
Think about quieter periods when hosting students would be manageable. The key is finding an arrangement that’s sustainable for your business while offering genuine value to the students. Starting small, perhaps with a single two-hour or half-day visit, lets you test what works before scaling up.
- Define clear learning outcomes
Setting out specific learning outcomes is the best way to create a meaningful experience for young people and make the best use of your time. For example, students coming away with an understanding of the customer service skills required in retail is more useful than just experiencing a retail environment.
Clear outcomes help you structure the programme, brief your team and provide a valuable learning experience. They also help you identify students who show genuine aptitude in the skills your sector needs; these young people could become future apprentices or employees.
- Prepare your team
Your employees are crucial to making work experience successful. Brief them on what’s expected and bring them in to help tailor the programme – they will have something valuable to share.
Identify team members who will interact well with students and consider appointing a work experience coordinator who can take ownership of the project. Discuss what meaningful interaction looks like: answering questions, explaining tasks and sharing honest insights about your industry.
Employees often find supporting work experience participants very rewarding. It can help develop their own communication skills and enhance their sense of purpose through inspiring the next generation.
- Create structured activities and tasks
Students need to actively participate and engage with the experience. Design tasks that are achievable but provide genuine insight into your sector, and ideally, add value to your business.
Activities might include researching competitors, creating social media content, mystery shopping your customer service, contributing to team meetings or shadowing different departments.
Well-designed tasks can deliver real value: fresh market research, usable content or honest feedback on your customer experience. You will also gain insight into the mindset of the next generation, which could inform future business strategy.
- Get in touch with Surrey Careers Hub
If you want to explore providing work experience in your small business, Surrey Careers Hub is here to support you.
Complete our contact form to express your interest, and we’ll arrange a short consultation to understand your business, capacity and what would work best for you. Together, we’ll help you to design a programme that suits your circumstances and industry.
Through our work experience matching platform CareerThread, you can connect with schools and students whose interests align with your sector.
Get started today. Complete our form or visit Surrey Careers Hub.
