Supporting member understanding of the expectations, requirements and benefits of delivering modern meaningful work experience for all young people will be an important focus for ISE in 2026, explains Anne-Marie Campion, ISE Insights Manager.
As part of its provisions to boost young people’s employability, the government’s vision for a Youth Guarantee (outlined in Get Britain Working) includes an ambitious entitlement to two weeks’ work experience (50 hours) for all school and college students in England.
Although this is not yet a statutory requirement, schools and colleges are expected to plan for it under Department for Education (DfE) guidance and there are expectations and implications for employers.
What is ‘meaningful work experience’?
‘Meaningful work experience’ is intended to help a young person understand what it’s like to work in a real job. It makes up number six of the revised Gatsby Benchmarks.
To be successful, meaningful work experience needs to demystify the world of work, enable the young person to see the connection with what they learn in the classroom, and open doors for their life beyond education. It should show what skills employers value, how people are hired, and what they need to do to succeed.
This can happen through workplace visits, work shadowing, or work experience - either in person, online, or both.
We often hear about a lack of ‘employability skills’ and ‘workplace readiness’. Some of the skills described consistently include effective communication, creativity, teamworking, resilience and professional presence.
But what do these mean and look like in a job? And how can young people coming straight out of school and college develop these skills and articulate that they have them?
Work experience is fundamental to give them line of sight of where they need to get to. A meaningful experience should:
- Have a clear purpose that both the employer and young person understand
- Have learning goals that match the young person’s needs
- Allow lots of two-way interaction between the young person and employees
- Let the young person meet different people in the workplace
- Give them a real task or piece of work to do
- Include feedback from the employer
- Be followed by time to reflect on what they learned
Can these ambitious plans be realised?
Schools and employers say the most effective programmes include preparation before the placement and reflection afterwards, but this can only happen widely if extra funding is provided.
A national database of work experience opportunities could help, but local coordination would still be important. Young people rarely wish to be restricted by their postcode for lifelong job opportunities, but given the demographic, geographical and accessibility factors of work experience, it needs to be delivered within local communities.
Funding should go where it’s most needed:
- For employers this means building capacity and opportunity within SMEs that make up 99% of the UK’s employers.
- For schools and colleges funding is needed to help students who require extra support, such as those at risk of becoming NEET.
Ideas that might help include:
- A kitemark for employers who do work experience well
- Local authorities encouraging work experience through their social value requirements
- Standardised documents, like common risk‑assessment forms, to reduce repeated work
There are already good examples of how to improve work experience for young people.
Read how C4 is scaling virtual work experience
Read how Aon and Connectr proved work experience at scale
The role of the Careers and Enterprise Company
The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) is the government’s partner in delivering their ambition for work experience. They are piloting a range of approaches and models supported by Careers Hubs and five Multi Academy Trusts.
Careers Hubs help young people get the advice, skills and work experience they need to make good career decisions. They bring together employers and apprenticeship providers across a local area so that effort isn’t duplicated and everyone works in a joined‑up way. They also have strong partnerships with schools and colleges.
The CEC also designed the equalex framework to support the development of a quality programme of modern work experience, which is progressive in nature and underpinned by learning outcomes that maximise impact for all learners.
The framework is currently being tested across several pilots, including schools, special schools, employers, Careers Hubs and work experience providers.
Read how Talent Foundry, KPMG UK and CEC collaborated to develop a pilot model for modern work experience
The CEC led a symposium in November 2025. Let’s Make It Work captured much of the thinking on how modern work experience can be delivered at scale and why it matters to young people, employers, communities and the UK economy.
The height of the ambition was highlighted throughout. For work experience to be transformative not transactional and accessible to all, not to a privileged few, requires systemic change to succeed. That said, the overwhelming benefits of work experience make this a challenge worth tackling.
Over the coming weeks and months, ISE will collaborate with CEC to support our members as well as continue to cover how work experience is evolving, best practice and insight. Alongside employer success stories, we’ll share the experience of schools and colleges and the student perspective.