Severn Trent left behind an ad-hod, reactive approach for high-quality, inclusive work experience at scale – and they’re reaping the rewards. Here’s how.
For young people, especially those facing disadvantage, high‑quality work experience is often the first time they see themselves belonging in a professional environment.
At Severn Trent, we see the impact directly: young people leave our programmes with greater confidence, improved teamwork, communication and problem‑solving, and a clearer understanding of careers in a sector they may never have previously considered.
Our evaluation shows that:
- 94% report increased confidence to enter the world of work
- 97% would recommend Severn Trent work experience to others
- 80% would now consider a career with us
- 100% increased their knowledge of who Severn Trent is and what we do
As well as the students themselves, there are also benefits for schools, the communities they serve and our business.
School, community and business benefits
For schools and communities, our work experience model offers a structured and impactful way to meet Gatsby Benchmarks 5 and 6, providing meaningful encounters with employers and experiences of real workplaces.
Partner schools value the consistency of our model and its equitable approach; they know exactly when placements and Discovery Days happen, what quality looks like, and that opportunities are targeted to young people who benefit most.
For the business, work experience is not CSR, it is strategic. As a largely operational organisation, our future workforce relies on growing pipelines of talent into engineering, field operations, treatment works and customer‑focused roles. High‑quality work experience helps build awareness of these roles, tackles misconceptions about who belongs in essential services, and grows a more diverse, local talent pool.
We already have powerful proof: multiple young people from our partner schools have progressed from a Discovery Day, to a longer work experience placement, and then into a Severn Trent apprenticeship.
By widening access and focusing on young people with the least social capital, we strengthen community trust and create a more inclusive future workforce.
A strategic approach to work experience
Five years ago, Severn Trent’s work experience offer was ad hoc and reactive. Placements came through colleagues’ friends and family or unstructured inbox requests, resulting in limited reach, inconsistent quality and minimal evaluation.
In our best year, we delivered around 40 in‑person placements. While meaningful, they were not at the level needed to drive social mobility or a future talent pipeline.
In 2022, the launch of our Societal Strategy created a step‑change. With a commitment to support 100,000 people at risk of water poverty, we redesigned work experience around equity, evidence and strategic workforce need. This meant a shift from helping those who asked to helping those who needed it most.
A reimagined programme
Partner schools and prioritisation
We now work with around 15 partner schools per year, chosen based on being in the top 10% of deprivation (IMD) and higher‑than‑average free school meals, and located where Severn Trent has apprenticeship and early‑career opportunities.
We prioritise students who face disproportionately high barriers to accessing professional networks: young people from low‑income backgrounds, SEND learners, those at risk of NEET, and those with limited access to transport or social capital.
Discovery Days – high reach, high impact
To improve reach and provide meaningful encounters at scale, we created Discovery Days, aligned to Gatsby Benchmark 6 (experiences of workplaces). In the first year we reached 300 students; this has grown and stabilised at 400–450 students annually.
In‑person work experience – expanded, structured and equitable
We committed to 500 in‑person school work experience opportunities each year, delivered through Discovery Days and longer placements in a programme‑based model.
Over the last two years, we expanded four‑day placements delivered through three application windows with randomised selection. This year, our central team created 100 placements and the business created 150 more, bringing total in‑person placements to 250.
Combined with Discovery Days (~350), we exceed our commitment. We have significantly increased operational placements, giving young people authentic exposure to the real work that keeps essential services running.
Quality, evaluation and consistency
Every placement has clear learning outcomes, host guidance packs, standardised tasks and end‑of‑placement presentations, plus pre/post confidence and skills evaluation mapped to Skills Builder. This ensures consistency across teams and locations.
Overcoming challenges
Operational capacity and hosting constraints
Being a predominantly operational business means many colleagues are not desk‑based, making hosting students difficult.
We moved to three fixed delivery windows, created template placement structures, and briefed managers through short training. This concentrates hosting effort, reduces disruption, and ensures students receive consistent experiences.
Fair access and the legacy of ‘who you know’
Historically, work experience privileges students with strong personal networks. We removed ad‑hoc colleague referrals, introduced priority criteria (IMD, FSM, SEND, NEET risk) and randomised selection.
Colleagues can still support young people they know, but these opportunities no longer displace places for those most in need.
Advice for employers
Here are our top five tips for employers redesigning work experience:
- Know your ‘why’ - are you looking to design for equity or talent pipeline (or both!)
- Adopt a repeatable model with fixed windows to simplify planning for schools and hosts.
- Focus on operational roles if you have them; they are accessible, meaningful and often misunderstood.
- Measure what matters: confidence, skills, satisfaction and progression - not just attendance. It’s equally important for a young person to figure out what they don’t like as much as what they do like
- Tell success stories that show progression into apprenticeships and careers, this proved business ROI