Work experience

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Last updated 4 September 2004

Work experience is an important part of a young person's education. Currently 95 per cent of students at Key Stage 4 undertake work placements and about half of sixth form students have a further period of work experience or work shadowing. The vast majority of employers, young people and their parents are positive about the experience and recognise the benefits that can come from well-organised programmes.

Work experience is defined as a placement on employer's premises in which a student carries out a range of tasks and duties, more or less as would an employee, but with the emphasis on the learning aspects of the experience. Placements are permitted by law only for students during Key Stage 4 and beyond. All arrangements for students in maintained schools must be made by the LEA or governing body of a school on their behalf.

Benefits of work experience
Work experience placements offer many benefits and learning opportunities. Placements should be regarded as a means of achieving learning outcomes. There are five main curriculum areas to which the work experience programme can be linked.

Employability and key skills: insights into skills and attitudes required by particular sectors and employers; and an opportunity to develop, practise and demonstrate key skills in a work setting, in particular, working with others, communication and improving own learning and performance
Careers education and guidance: better understanding of changes in the world of work and the implications these have for their own careers
Vocational courses: better understanding of vocational areas being studied, the opportunity to investigate real examples for coursework and the opportunity to gather evidence of vocational skills developed
Personal and social development: development of increased maturity, with improvements in aspects such as motivation, self-confidence and interpersonal skills
National curriculum and other subjects: opportunities to enhance students' understanding of the national curriculum, develop a practical understanding of a range of issues involving economic and business issues, citizenship, enterprise, environmental, and moral and social education

Health and safety
LEAs and schools have a common law duty to look after the children they educate. They also have responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. They must, therefore, take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the placements they arrange will be safe. These considerations apply equally to cases where students have arranged their own placement or where arrangements are made through an intermediary body.

It is essential that:

students are properly prepared and briefed on the hazards of the workplace and the control measures provided to reduce or eliminate risk of injury, before they start work
employers, workplace supervisors and other employees know exactly what is expected of them and are aware of their legal responsibilities
the school is clear about its responsibilities in arranging placements for students and introducing them to health and safety at work issues, prior to their placement

Schools should consider the cost-effectiveness of using teachers to check the health and safety of placements. Centrally co-ordinated schemes reduce these costs, avoid duplication of visits and generally have greater consistency. There is already extensive collaboration in many areas between Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs)/education business link consortia, Education Business Partnership (EBPs), careers services, and the Trident Trust. It is also possible for schools to make joint arrangements to visit premises through several mechanisms:

an outside expert might be used
a centrally co-ordinated scheme may be available
a specialist agency can be contacted

Insurance
Schools must check that employers offering work experience placements have suitable arrangements in place. Although circumstances giving rise to insurance claims occur infrequently, it is important to ensure that the main risks are covered.

Hours and payments
The number of hours worked and the pattern of work is normally a matter for agreement by the employer, school, parents and students. In keeping with their common law duty to look after the students in their care, LEAs and schools should take steps to ensure that students on placements are not asked to work excessively long hours or unnecessarily unsocial hours. Unless there are strong reasons to the contrary, it is recommended that students should not be asked to work more than a standard eight-hour day. Schools should also note that the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998 No. 1833) apply in the case of school-cased work experience. Students should not work for more than five days in any consecutive seven-day period.

Transport and meals
Schools should consider whether any arrangements for transport and meals are required. The LEA might be providing students with either free home to school travel or assistance with transport to school. In addition, students whose parents are in receipt of income support must be provided with a free school meal. It is open to employers to assist with such expenses, if they wish to do so. Although transport provided by schools and LEAs to take students to activities in school-time must be free, where a student makes use of transport not provided by the LEA or school to travel direct from home, parents may be asked to meet the cost. LEAs and schools retain the discretion to provide a subsidy where they consider it appropriate and where resources allow. It is important for the school, the employers, and the parents and students to be informed beforehand exactly what the arrangements are to be.

Accidents
Employers should be reminded that duties include reporting accidents to the HSE/local authority under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 (SI 1995 No. 3163). Schools and LEAs must ensure that all assaults, serious and fatal accidents on work experience are reported immediately by telephone or fax to:

Health and Safety policy team at DfES (tel: 0114 259 3302)
The regional Government Office (details available from your local LSC)

Limitations
The Education Act 1996 places certain limitations on the sorts of work in which students can be employed. The Act prohibits work experience placements where the work concerned is subject to a statutory restriction based on age limits expressed as a number of years. This preserves the effect of certain byelaws that contain specific provision expressed in this way, for example prohibiting certain work for anyone under the age of 16. The Act also makes it clear that restrictions applying to work on ships still applies (specialist advice should be sought if in doubt).

Child protection
Child protection means protecting children against abuse and non-accidental injury and applies to all young people under 18. Employers are asked, when preparing a programme of work experience for a young person, to take responsibility for their social as well as their physical welfare. Employers should do all they can to ensure their employee's relationships with young people on work experience are appropriate to their age and gender, and do not give rise to comment or speculation. Attitude,behaviour and language all require care and thought.

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