Work experience doesn’t need to be two-weeks to make an impact, but it should incorporate career education alongside skills development, explains Sarra Jenkins, Director of Future Pathways at Loughborough Grammer School.
While schools receive a lot of requests for help and advice over work experience, it’s common to miss out the link between career education and work experience.
The perception of the value of work experience
The government’s National Youth Strategy promised an introduction of ‘two weeks’ work experience for every young person’ across their secondary education (Read ISE’s what you need to know about work experience policy in 2026).
This complements Gatsby Benchmark 6, updated in 2024, which focuses on work experience to allow young people to explore the working environment, and is often supported, if not driven by, data which argues that work experience is invaluable for students and employer alike.
However, the value of work experience is commonly linked to the ‘real world skills’ it may lead a student to develop – in the Gatsby Consultation Survey Report, only 15% of all respondents saw work experience as valuable for making decisions about future careers, and only 8% for getting inspired/motivated.
Yet Uptree’s research suggested that nearly half of students thought the best work experience would include information on training and progression, and over a third of students wanted to know what the career entails.
So, what’s the issue?
Work experience as a career-broadening experience
In seeing work experience as just a vehicle to develop work-related skills, it misses the opportunity for students to experience a range of careers and develop their aspiration.
A one or two week placement at an employer is difficult to deliver for employers, with 41% of companies saying the process is too time-consuming and over half saying two-weeks is too long.
Such lengthy placements not only create an issue of capacity for young people to take up work experience, but it denies them the chance to experience a range of careers.
For most students, their knowledge of careers is going to be closely linked to their direct experiences. This can be seen, for example, in university application statistics, where UCAS reported in 2020:
- 19% of students with a parent or carer in farming are studying veterinary science, compared to 1% of all students
- 17% of students with a parent or carer in medical practice are studying medicine or dentistry, compared to 2% of all students
- 32% of students with a parent or carer who is an artist study creative courses, compared to 9% of all students
Limiting students’ direct exposure of workplaces to just one or two week-long blocks limits the capacity of students to explore careers they had never considered.
Work experience to reduce inequality, not broaden it
Where places are scarce and students complete longer blocks of work experience, their reliance on networking is crucial, favouring children of middle-class parents. The inequality that work experience can create is compounded.
Work experience attendance can be linked to a lower likelihood of a student becoming NEET, but access to work experience is not equally available to all. For example, work experience is often seen as an addition to part-time work; although Gatsby’s Benchmark 6 says part-time work can be taken into account, this is only if the work ‘genuinely offers them a meaningful experience’. That said, if work experience allows students to develop work-related skills, part-time work is brilliant for this.
If work experience is seen as an aside from part-time work, this means that students have to have time to be able to undertake it. Yet, a fifth of students say they do not have time, and others report challenges of being able to find a place. Only 36% of UK students experience in-person work experience before leaving education. This is a microcosm of the unpaid internship argument that led to government calls to ban such work as a driver of inequality.
Work experience that allows students to interact with the workplace in a range of ways – face-to-face, hybrid, online – across a range of employers, enables more students to access it.
Springpod research supports this, with a diverse audience reach and around half of students undertaking virtual work experience reporting an increase in career confidence and job readiness.
Face-to-face opportunities are inherently geographically linked. Whilst around one in five UK jobs may be classed as ‘Anywhere Jobs’, students whose work experience expectation is a one-week face-to-face experience will have a limited choice depending on the economy of their local area.
Conversely, online experiences allow students to have a greater range of direct experiences. Whilst this is by no means a silver bullet, potential issues such as engagement and digital poverty are factors that exist with regards to face-to-face work experience too.
Providing online opportunities also further enable employers to broaden their net and develop their talent pool.
Work experience to offer a better understanding of career development
The Gatsby Benchmarks focus on ‘meaningful encounters’. The challenge of making work experience meaningful is well understood (Not just making tea…).
‘Meaningful’ is a nebulous term that means different things to different students and employers, and it shouldn’t be seen as a synonym for ‘engaging’. With Uptree’s research suggesting that students want work experience to include information on career development, it is interesting that work experience is identified as different to career education.
For example, I worked with a student who did a one-week placement in a solicitor’s office, having aspirations within this field. They had a delightful time and came back highly motivated to succeed in this field. However, shadowing a solicitor who was two decades into their career hid the path they trod to get there – the degree, training contracts, SQEs, and so on.
Whilst this could notionally be learnt afterwards, it can create a jarring experience for the student who perhaps would have benefitted from hearing it as part of their work experience.
Building in career development and progression within work experience supports student aspiration and understanding.
Work experience is invaluable. Numerous ISE reports show employers look for it when hiring. Students can develop skills and contextualise the world of work. But focusing on the provision of longer placements – alarmingly similar to when I was at school too many years ago – misses opportunities for both students and employers.
Insight into the workplace should mean real-life insight into different career paths, not just developing workplace skills. Multiple, shorter interactions of work experience in varied formats, although not without logistical challenges, create opportunities for employers and students alike.