Work Experience
Experiences of the Workplace & Employer Encounters
Encounters with employers and experiences of the workplace are powerful learning experiences for young people.
Workplace experiences have evolved over the years, where progressive, high-quality programmes achieve impact through tailored initiatives, starting with engagement from Year 7. They identify clear intent to structuring and adapting programmes to modern working practices.
When employers and young people work together with purpose there are benefits to both:
- Young people gain insight into the world of work – including the skills required. This helps them make future career decisions and builds motivation in the here and now.
- Employers learn about their future workforce (and even begin the recruitment process).
- Disadvantaged young people – who have fewer connections and social networks disproportionately benefit from high quality interactions with employers.
Best practice includes planning learning objectives (including skills young people are working on) in advance, using the experience as ‘real life assessment’ and building the experiences back into their school learning.
The Careers & Enterprise Company offers lots of helpful resources to employers wanting to understand more.
To find out more about offering a placement to a young person please either contact us or follow the links below to providers in Cheshire & Warrington:
One of the LSIP Roadmap themes is supporting Educational Professionals to update their skills in line with current business needs and increasing capacity within the existing skills system to ensure there are sufficient educational professionals to enable future course delivery.
As a business based in Cheshire & Warrington, you can support the development of Educational Professionals in Cheshire & Warrington by:
Supporting educational professionals to update their knowledge and understanding of the skills needed for the future workforce
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This could involve demonstrating new techniques and equipment to teachers.
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Providing opportunities for industry placements or work shadowing for teaching professionals.
Offering support to providers with curriculum development
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Providers are keen to engage with businesses to ensure that their curriculum is reflective of current industry needs.
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You can support providers by reviewing learning materials and making sure they are up to date.
Training to be a teacher / assessor
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There are many opportunities to get involved with Further Education and many providers offer flexible contracts to make sure that they can get people with the right skills and experience.
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Find out more about how to “Share Your Skills”