Work experience helps young people to better understand the working environment and make the transition from education into working life by giving them:

• First-hand experience of the workplace and insight into jobs and sectors.
• A chance to develop transferable skills, which they can take forward into a new environment.
• Insight into how their skills and abilities translate to the workplace.
• Opportunity to find out more about themselves, what inspires them and try different sectors and employers, without commitment.
• Increased confidence and understanding about the work environment.
• Understanding of potential employability skills they have or need.
• Experience which can be added to their CV demonstrating what they have learned and skills gained. 
• Increased understanding of sector/industry and networks available, enabling opportunities to engage and connect their network further.
• An understanding of the recruitment process, including what employers look for when recruiting and the multiple steps they may go through.  

Offering work experience is beneficial to employers for a number of reasons: 

• Recruitment opportunities and building future talent pipelines: work experience placements enable employers to understand the current capabilities and talents of individuals and access a wider range of talent. This helps employers to consider future strategic talent management, workforce and succession planning.
• Fresh ideas: young people offer new ideas and ways of thinking, reflecting the interests and needs of the next generation of customers and consumers.
• Staff development: offering work experience placements can provide opportunities for existing staff to supervise and mentor young people, providing opportunities to realise unidentified skills and develop management or other professional and personal skills.
• More engaged workforce: providing work experience sends a positive message to your wider workforce about how you support talent. This can help you create a more engaged workforce overall.
• Engagement with the local community: helps boost local economic development, can lead to increased brand loyalty and profile, and in turn to greater profits.

If you are in doubt about what you need to do to setup a successful programme or want to improve your current offer, follow these basic guidelines for offering good-quality work experience placements. 

Work experience generally is an opportunity for someone to spend a limited time with an organisation. A common duration for a work experience programme in the UK is around two weeks; however, the nature, length and arrangements for work experience vary greatly. 

UK employers may need to consider the following legal obligations when employing young people for work experience:

• You may be expected to carry out background checks on employees who are supervising young people under 18 years of age.
• Liability insurance.
• Risk assessment.
• Health and safety assessment.
• Employment status and entitlement to pay. 

No DBS is required for staff supervising young people aged 16-17   

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) (formerly CRB) check is not compulsory for staff supervising participants aged 16-17. In the case of work experience, a DBS check will only be required if an employee’s specific job purpose includes looking after under-16 work experience students. Workers aged 16-17 who help or work with young people of their own age require a DBS check when taking part in volunteering, part-time work or unpaid work experience which involves a regulated activity with those under 18. This applies even if the individual is under 18 themselves. No DBS checks can be carried out on anyone under the age of 16. Employers can refuse requests by the education provider that checks are carried out for those aged 16-17. DBS checks can only be made for eligible roles which can be checked using the DBS Eligibility Tool. For more information, visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service  

Liability insurance covers people on work experience  

Individuals on work experience should be covered by the employer’s existing employers’ liability insurance policy, provided your insurer is a member of the Association of British Insurers. Find out more at www.abi.org.uk  

Employers can use existing arrangements for assessments and management of risks to young people  

Employers must manage risks for all workers, assessing any additional workplace risks for young people who are in a new working environment. For example their muscle strength may not be fully developed and they may lack the skills and awareness of more experienced workers. Whilst risks must still be assessed, if employers have fewer than five employees a written risk assessment is not required. However, if you have not taken on a young person in the last few years or are taking on a work experience student for the first time, it’s important to take care to identify the particular needs of the individual and review risk assessments before they start. If a work experience student increases staff levels to five a written risk assessment is not needed for the temporary period.

Health and safety guidelines made simple  

In the past, work placement arrangements have sometimes been seen as over-bureaucratic. However, the Health and Safety Executive recently reviewed their guidance to make it easier and less burdensome for employers keen to offer work experience placements. 

There are very few work activities a young person cannot do due to health and safety law. It’s important to remember that as an employer, you have primary responsibility for the health and safety of the student and should be managing any significant risks. But it’s easy to do this, by: 

• explaining the risks and how they are controlled when inducting any individual undertaking work experience; checking that they understand what they have been told and know how to raise any health and safety concerns
• relying on past or pooled experience when thinking about health and safety
• keeping checks in proportion to the environment the young person will be working in – for further advice on health and safety, visit the HSE website. 

Pay and duration of placement  

Young people can be taken on by an organisation in a number of different ways. However, where an employer takes on a young person of compulsory school age, for a short-term work experience placement, they do not need to pay them for their time. 

However, it is important that an employer understands the employment status and entitlement, including the right to National Minimum Wage (NMW) or National Living Wage (NLW), that apply to each individual in their organisation. 

Employers should establish if any arrangements with makes them a ‘worker’ or an ‘employee’ for NMW/NLW purposes. It’s important to be clear about what is being offered on a work experience placement to ensure it adheres to entitlement guidelines.  

For further details on the legal obligations for employing young people, read our employment law resource on ‘Recruitment’.

For more information about the entitlements of employees and workers, and the employment status of specific entitlements of Apprentices, those undertaking work experience placements, young people on traineeships, interns, agency workers and volunteers, visit www.acas.org.uk or www.gov.uk. 

Taking on young people for work experience placements can help an employer tap into a wider talent pool and reach individuals from diverse social backgrounds.

Follow our top tips to improve the diversity of your work experience candidates: 

• Contact your local school or college directly to discuss a work experience opportunities and arrangement.
• Be proactive and ‘reach out’ to education providers – more employers are increasing their ‘outreach’ activity, including attending careers fairs, open evenings and school events, and many are hosting assemblies or open events on their premises, which give them a chance to talk about their industry and show people round.
• Avoid recruiting by ‘who you know’ alone – relying on existing networks and internal word-of-mouth can restrict your reach and lead to missed opportunities – both for diverse groups (applying for roles) and employers seeking diverse skills.
• When choosing a placement, be flexible when considering qualifying criteria, such as educational attainment and/or pre-existing work experience. Not everyone has had the same opportunities, is academic and often demonstrate different skills, such as effective communication, which can be equally as important. 

Our inclusive recruitment guide has further details on attracting diverse talent and ensuring your processes are fair.

When young people join on work experience, they should receive an induction to the workplace that will help them to integrate quickly and learn about working life. Whether joining a large organisation or an SME, a young person entering the world of work for the first time may have little understanding of how it functions and how they should behave. 

The induction is a great opportunity to: 

• get to know the young person
• understand their previous experience
• talk about the expectations from both parties
• establish the young person’s goals
• provide space for the young person to ask questions. 

Therefore, a good induction should include: 

• An introduction to your organisation, detailing how your company is structured, the key people the individual will have contact with, their role and what they do in the business.
• A tour of your building and its facilities, including where to get food, nearest toilets, first aid facilities and where the fire exits are situated, any evacuation procedures, as well as health and safety information they need to know (this is a legal requirement)
• A clear outline of what they will be doing during their time with you – this should also include an opportunity to gain the skills or experience the young person is keen to develop.
• A plan or schedule for the individual’s time whole on work experience, clearly outlining what they will do each day (for example, where to report to each day/logging in each day, who to meet, etc). 

You could also consider asking the young person to send in a CV before they start so you can find out more about them and help them to feel they’re experiencing the real working world. 

It is important to plan in advance to give the young person a variety of tasks and,if possible, rotate them between departments so they gain a good insight into the different aspects of the workplace. An option to maximise the young person’s exposure to the business could be to arrange lunch with different team members each day – from all levels of the organisation. 

Organisations should ensure there is a dedicated person(s) with ring-fenced time in their work schedule to supervise the young person throughout their work placement. This could be a good development opportunity for an employee looking to develop their management capability. In addition, where possible, appoint a separate mentor or coach to support the young person more informally. 

Offering quality, supportive work experience is simple if you follow some basic guidelines. 

• Be clear about how the young person will be supported, supervised and mentored during work experience.
• Assign a ‘buddy’ – this role is key to supporting a young person, therefore a buddy should be someone keen to do the role and who has a friendly, supportive manner.
• Ensure the young person is introduced to the structure of working life. If it helps, plan a schedule to help them see what they’ll be doing each day.

At the end of the work experience placement, a meeting with the young person should take place to review how everything went, for both the person on work experience as well as the employer. Some students may have a log or diary which they must fill in during, and at the end of, their time with an employer. If there’s space to write a comment or feedback, always offer constructive feedback to help the individual understand any positives and any development areas, to help them in the future. i.e. consider asking simple questions, to expand your knowledge, if you are not sure how something works, ask for another demonstration. 

Assess the success of the placement and, if appropriate, offer further support to the individual by agreeing to act as a referee and encouraging the young person to stay in touch.