WK EXP Report Draft 3 · Work Experience: impact and delivery – insights from the evidence...

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Page 1: WK EXP Report Draft 3 · Work Experience: impact and delivery – insights from the evidence Education and Employers Taskforce 5 Work experience and clarifying career aspirations

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Work Experience: impact and delivery – insights from the evidenceEducation and Employers Taskforce

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About the authorDr Anthony Mann is Director of Policy and Research at the Education and Employers Taskforce.He is an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Education and Industry at the University of Warwickand sits on advisory boards for the Institute of Education, the National Foundation forEducational Research and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He is a formerpolicy official with the Department for Education.

AcknowledgementsThe author is grateful to the members of the Education and Employers Taskforce’s workinggroups on Work Experience for their productive discussions of the evidence and themes raisedin this report. The report has benefited particularly from the work of Dr Steve Jones, Tricia LeGallais and Professor Andrew Miller.

Design and photography by James Stokes at www.popmedia.co.uk.

A publication by the Education and Employers Taskforce, April 2012

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Contents

Foreword by Brian Lightman,

General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders

1: Introduction - work experience in context

2: Work experience and... clarifying career aspirations

3: Work experience and... getting into university

4: Work experience and... academic attainment

5: Work experience and... employment

6: The quality of work experience

7: Work experience: opportunities and obstacles

Annexes

Annex 1: Members of the Education and Employers Taskforce Expert Working Group on Work Experience, 2011

Annex 2: Young People’s views on work experience. A survey of 15,025 pupils following their work experience placement, 2008

Annex 3: Three focus groups with young people at a Northwest secondary school

Annex 4: Work experience by occupational sector, 2009/10. Distribution of placements.

References

Endnotes

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There is no doubt in my mind that workexperience can make a significant difference tothe motivation, attainment and progression ofstudents. As a headteacher I have seen attitudesto school of many young people completelytransformed as a result of their highly positiveexperience on a placement. Those who lacked thenecessary motivation or maturity to work to theirfull potential have often returned fromplacements fuelled up as a result of anexperience which can genuinely be life changing.Other academically high achieving pupils havebeen challenged to aim even higher and broadentheir experience.

However, this does not always happenautomatically. Effective work experienceplacements need proper planning and need to bematched to the needs of students. They need toinvolve the students in a range of meaningfulactivities with opportunities for reflection on whatthey have learned. Schools and employers need toliaise closely and students need to be fully briefedbefore arriving at the placement. Theexpectations of students and their parents needto be managed so that they understand thepurposes of work experience. ASCL is delightedto have been able to support the expert groupover this important project.

Brian Lightman General Secretary Association of School and College Leaders

Foreword

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Work experience and clarifyingcareer aspirations• Work experience is under-utilised as a means tostretch the career horizons of young people. Theproblem is that half of placements are found byyoung people or by their families using largelyexisting social networks

• There is a strong connection between clarity andrealism of career aspirations aged 16 and lateradult labour market outcomes. There’s significantcorrelation between career uncertainty orconfusion and NEET status at 16 to 18

• Work experience helps determine that a specificcareer is not for the individual. Allowing return tocareer exploration at a point when decisions overwhat qualifications to pursue can still be made

• Work experience can be a very effective means ofchallenging social stereotypes about the realismof occupational ambitions

• One size does not fit all. More needs to be knownabout the relative effectiveness of alternativemeans of workplace exposure, notably careerfairs, workplace visits and job shadowing

Work experience and getting intouniversity• Work experience often plays an important, attimes essential, role in determining admission touniversity courses, but this is not well understoodby policy makers

• Young people taught in independent schoolsroutinely have access to high quality workexperience which is more relevant to universityadmissions than their state-educatedcounterparts

• Greater attention should be given to enablingpupils within the state sector to accessexperiences comparable with those enjoyed in theprivate sector

• Further research is needed to understand theextent to which work experience shapes universityadmissions

Work experience and academicattainment• High proportions of both pupils and teaching staffbelieve that young people return from workexperience more motivated to do well at school

• Qualitative evidence from teaching staff suggeststhat different types of pupils respond in differentways to placements

• Many believe that work experience helpsborderline pupils to achieve academic targetssuch as five GCSEs

• Lower attaining pupils can gain much from thedifferent learning environment presented byextended work experience

• Timing work experience to take place towards theend of Year 10 is unlikely to optimise theattainment benefits of placements

Work experience and employment• Young people strongly believe that the workexperience helps to develop their employabilityskills

• Around half of work experience placements aresourced directly by pupils or their families, thisdoes not mean a good fit with the realities ofdemand in the labour market

• An estimated one-quarter of pupils are offeredpart-time employment following a workexperience placement

• Work experience undertaken closer to ultimatelabour market entry (aged 16 – 18) optimisesopportunities for jobs to be secured, but is too lateto inform important decisions about post-16educational and training choices

Key insights from the research: an overview

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Over the last generation, work experience hasbecome a very familiar, though not universal,element of British school life. This paper presentsfindings from recent research into the value of workexperience to young people. It does so at a timewhen the delivery of work experience is undergoingfundamental change and its future direction isuncertain. The purpose of this paper is to shareevidence considered by the Education andEmployers Taskforce’s 2011 Expert Working Groupon Work Experience to raise awareness of thosefindings together with new data, contributing to anongoing debate on the purpose and future of workexperience.

A short history of work experiencein EnglandThe opportunity for young people to undertake ashort period of work experience towards the end oftheir compulsory education has been an element ofdebate among educationalists, employers andgovernments for over forty years. Following a periodof occasional, uncoordinated practice, the Education(Work Experience) Act of 1973, clarified the law toallow pupils to undertake placements on employerspremises during the last year of compulsoryeducation. The 1973 legislation was prompted bythe raising of the school leaving age in 1972 to 16,and was designed, and initially delivered, largelywith the interests in mind of young people whowould be expected to enter the labour market early.Consequently, the early focus of work experienceprogrammes in the UK were on lower attainingpupils interested in finding employment at age 16.

A growing appreciation of workexperienceOver the 1980s, however, the focus of workexperience broadened, moving by the end of thedecade to an assumption that all pupils shouldexperience a placement before the age of 16. Overthe following two decades, governmentsdemonstrated a growing appreciation of workexperience, standardised around a vision of a two-week placement typically at age 15. Nationalguidance on work experience, including qualitystandards for schools and colleges, employers andwork experience organisers were issued for the firsttime in 1998, and in the same year, schools wereallowed to offer extended work experience (such asone day a week over a year) as part of greaterflexibility in Key Stage 4 and disapplication of theNational Curriculum. In 2004, work-relatedlearning became a statutory requirement at KeyStage 4 in England with similar approaches beingtaken by governments in Wales and Scotland. Thestatutory requirement has often beenmisinterpreted as an obligation on schools toensure their pupils undertake work experience.This was not the case. However, use of workexperience became one of the primary means bywhich schools sought to fulfil their obligations todevelop Key Stage 4 provision to include educationabout, for, and through work.

“A placement on an employer’s premises in which a studentcarries out a particular task or duty, or range of tasks orduties, more or less as would an employee, but with anemphasis on the learning aspects of the experience.”

- Definition of work experience, Department for Education

1: Introduction - work experience in context

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Discrete funding subsidises costs toschoolsFrom the mid-1980s to 2011, government has put inplace discrete funding to enable work experienceplacements to be found and appropriately managedfor ever growing numbers of young people. Througha number of initiatives and funding routes,departments for trade and industry and educationcontributed central government funding tointermediary bodies to liaise between employersand schools. By the turn of the century, a unit costof £30 for a work experience placement wasassumed with central government contributing halfof funding in the expectation that schools or,perhaps, local authorities would make up theshortfall. For much of the last decade, centralgovernment funding for work experience waswrapped up in a £25m budget distributed throughthe Learning and Skills Councils and then LocalAuthorities to support the delivery of a wide range ofemployer engagement activities undertaken byschools in meeting the requirement to providepupils with work-related learning.

Moving centre stageTowards the end of the last decade, curriculuminnovations such as the Young Apprenticeship andthe Diploma, identified appropriate and relevantwork experience as central to the learning process.In seeking to integrate insights gained from theworkplace into classroom-based teaching, thesecurriculum innovations spoke to a long standingdebate about the nature and purpose of workexperience. Should it be a standalone activity or anintegral part of a learning programme? Was it moreabout the facilitation of the first steps into work ofparticular relevance to early school leavers, or anexperience important, in different ways, to all pupilsregardless of their progression intent?

The purposes of work experienceCertainly, over the last generation, policy makershave seen work experience as a means to achieve arange of very different objectives. Influential workby educationalist Professor Tony Watts, firstpublished in 1991, set out ten different educationaland development aims to which work experience

was relevant. In a similar vein, the 2008 Work-related Learning Guide (Second Edition) publishedby the then Department for Children, Schools andFamilies set out the nine underlying aims of work-related learning (of which work experience wasconceived as a primary delivery mechanism).1 Suchapproaches, however, focused strongly on thedevelopment purposes of work experience – forexample, its perceived capacity to develop the broad‘employability skills’ of young people or to facilitatetheir personal and social development – rather thanfocus on harder outcomes such as securing jobs orincreasing attainment.

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The Wolf ReviewThe 2011 Wolf Review encouraged a change infocus. It signalled a significant change in how workexperience will be delivered in English schools,arguing that work experience would be moreproductively delivered at 16-18 as a means to easethe transitions of young people into the workforce,with work experience at 14-16 targeted primarily atlower achievers. The Wolf agenda spoke to widergovernmental concerns surrounding supportingeconomic growth by tackling skills shortages, actingto reduce record youth unemployment andsupporting young people at risk of NEET throughaction to raise the required age for participation ineducation or training to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015.From another government perspective, the 2011Social Mobility Strategy identifies access to workexperience as a key means of helping gifted youngpeople from disadvantaged backgrounds optimisetheir chances of accessing professionalemployment.

A changing delivery landscapeAmid this renewed policy interest, the deliverylandscape through which work experience has, inrecent years, been largely delivered has beenfundamentally changed. Government has decidedto repeal the statutory requirement to work-relatedlearning at Key Stage 4 and in March 2011announced the ending of centralised fundingthrough Local Authorities to co-ordinate liaisonbetween schools, colleges and employers across awide range of activities, including work experience.Schools, therefore, from April onwards began toincur the full costs of funding work experienceplacements, with head teachers and boards ofgovernance deciding afresh whether they wouldcontinue participation.

In such a dynamic environment, the Education andEmployers Taskforce brought together a range ofstakeholders to discuss the future of workexperience. Chaired by Peter Lambert, DeputyDirector of Business in the Community, the workinggroup provided a platform for leadingrepresentatives of schools, employers,intermediaries and government to take stock of thechange. A full membership list of the group isannexed. The group received two key papers settingout available recent evidence on the impact anddelivery of work experience and, within itsconclusions, recommended that these findings beshared more widely to allow deeper more informeddebates in schools, colleges, universities, places ofemployment, local authorities, intermediaries andgovernment.

This document highlights the evidence presented tothe group in terms of the impact of work experienceon career decision-making, attainment, universityentry and employment. It also notes recentresearch on the quality of placements and how theycan be optimally delivered. Summaries of thesefindings form the bulk of this document. Among itsannexes are notes from three focus groups withyoung people and the results of a 15,000 pupilssurvey reflecting on their own experiences ofplacements.

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The scale and costs of workexperience in 2009/10In considering the future of work experience, it isuseful to take stock of its delivery in the last fullyear of historic funding. In 2009/10, the last year forwhich English data is available, a minimum of525,000 young people aged between 14 and 19 wenton a work experience placement organised throughtheir school or college. Of these, theoverwhelmingly majority undertook a two weekplacement of five to ten days duration during Year10. Over that year, some 400,000 employers tookyoung people on placements, includingapproximately 60,000 new employers which had notdone so the previous year. Looked at from anotherperspective, a 2011 survey of young Britons aged 19to 24 showed that 86% of former pupils of non-selective state schools had undertaken a workexperience placement, as did 84% of former pupilsof both grammar and independent schools. Of allyoung Britons, 63% undertook a placement at 14 to16, 13% at 16 to 19 and 10% at both ages.

The work experience placement is the sum of aseries of component parts, which include from thefinding, and checking placements for health andsafety, matching pupils, preparing both pupils andemployers and evaluating experiences.2 Whileneither pupil nor employer are typically paid, therequirement for health and safety inspections andthe need to identify and manage relationships withemployers means that work experience comes withcosts attached. A review of 2009/10 of costs by theEducation and Employers Taskforce identified anaverage unit cost for a two week placement of £62(including estimated school costs) where managedthrough an Educational Business PartnershipOrganisation operating within a single LocalAuthority area, reducing to £55 (again includingestimated school costs) where operating over two ormore authority areas. Best data available to thereview suggested that the average unit cost to aschool of managing the whole work experienceprocess itself rises to an average of £138.3

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One of the primary purposes of work experience haslong been seen as providing young people withopportunities to explore different jobs and so makebetter decisions about their occupational ambitions.Recent high quality research has shown just howimportant it is for young people, as they reach theend of compulsory schooling, to have occupationalgoals in mind, certainty and realism of careerambitions at age 16 and later outcomes in the jobsmarket. Analysis of longitudinal survey data by ateam led by Scott Yates (DeMontfort University) hasshown a significant correlation between careeruncertainty or confusion and NEET status at 16 to18. With controls in place for other characteristicssuch as social background and attainment, youngpeople who are uncertain or unrealistic (wheretypical entry requirements exceed expectedattainment) about their career ambitions are two tothree times more likely to be NEET after the age of16. US research adopting a similar methodologyhas looked at the earnings of young adults in theirearlier twenties and explored the significance ofcareer uncertainty at 16. Again, it is found that

having controlled for social characteristics andattainment, young people who were uncertain about career aspirations at 16 were at a significantdisadvantage in the labour market, earning lessthan their peers.4

The views of young peopleRespected surveys of young people show that workexperience is typically seen as being useful todeciding on future careers. Table 1 sets out thefindings of three polls of young people after they hadcompleted placements, each with large numbers ofrespondents. The results are consistent in showingthat approximately two-thirds of young people findtheir placements generally helpful in thinking aboutcareer aspirations, with one-third finding them veryhelpful. The table highlights responses to questionsthat relate both to long term career aspirations andshorter term steps towards achieving them. In thisway, it suggests that work experience placementshelp young people to make more confident choicesat key transition points.

Table 1. Results of three surveys investigating the link between work experience and changes in young people’sviews on careers choices, 2005 – 2008.5

Survey team, year of survey: respondent statement

IEBE (2008): “I am clearer aboutwhat I want to do in my futureeducation and career (post-16)”

London Metropolitan University(2005): “Encouraged /discouragedyou from choosing work like this”

Loughborough University (2005):“Work experience was helpful inmaking a post Year 11 decision”

Number (sample size), age

15,025 (15-16yrs)

566 (15-16yrs)

18,989 (16-18yrs)

% agreeing strongly/finding very helpful

37%

N/A

34%

% total agreeing/finding helpful

75%

60%

65%

2: Work experience and...clarifying career aspirations

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Focus groups with young people (three are annexedin this document) often highlight the important rolethat work experience can play in determining thatspecific career is not for the individual. Thiseffective negative choice is of particular value as itallows the young person to return to careerexploration at a point when decisions over whatqualifications to pursue can still be made,increasing the chance of an ultimately successfulschool-to-work transition.

The views of young adultsA February 2011 pro bono YouGov survey of 986young British adults, aged 19-24 shows that youngadults feel, from the vantage point of the labourmarket or higher education, that work experiencedid make a difference to their career choices: 57%of survey respondents that undertook a work

experience placement between the ages of 14 to 19felt that it helped them in terms of deciding on thesort of career they wanted in later life (18% believethat it helped them a lot). The survey providesfurther data to suggest that young people withextensive experience of the workplace whilst still ineducation proved more adept at navigating earlycareers. Data reported in the Taskforce paper, It’swho you meet (2012), showed that, controlling forhighest level of attainment, young adults who hadexperienced four or more employer engagementactivities (such as work experience) were five timesless likely to be NEET than peers who recalled nosuch activities and, if in full-time employment,earning an average of 16% more.6 The survey alsoprovided evidence to show that young adults withextensive employer engagement experience feltthemselves that they were progressing well towardscareer ambitions.

Table 2. Correlation between number of employer engagement activities undertaken whilst ineducation (aged 14-19) and perceptions as a young adults (aged 19-24) of usefulness ofcurrent activity to future career aspirations.

Taskforce/YouGov Survey

Sample Size: 986

Fieldwork: February 2011(Great Britain)

Weighted Base

Very Useful

Useful

Not that Useful

Not at all Useful

0 1 2 3 4 or more

35.7% 38.0% 40.7% 45.8% 54.4%

31.6% 32.5% 37.2% 25.4% 30.9%

15.8% 13.3% 10.3% 11.9% 7.4%

16.9% 16.2% 11.7% 16.9% 7.4%

266 345 145 59 68

Some schools and colleges arrange for their students (aged between 14

and 19) to take part in activities which involve employers or local business

people providing things like work experience, mentoring, enterprise activity,

careers advice, CV or interview practice. On how many different occasions

do you remember such employer involvement in your education?

Thinking about the sort

of job you’d like to be

doing in 5 to 10 years

time, how useful do

you think what you are

doing now is as a way

of achieving this?

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Work experience and socialimmobility?Work experience is often seen as a very effectivemeans to broaden the career aspirations of pupils.The authenticity of the experience and opportunity toinvestigate the breadth of professional areas providerare and valuable resources to young people.However, young people need to access theexperience in order to gain from it. The careerambitions of young people emerge out of theirspecific social contexts shaping the extent to whichdifferent occupational areas are appropriate or notfor ‘people like me’. Work by sociologists andeducationalists highlights the ways in which socialclass, gender and ethnicity often limit ambitions,regardless of aptitude. In such a context, workexperience can often be a powerful means tochallenging stereotypes by providing first-handevidence that girls do become engineers, boys do goon to work in childcare, or that black and minorityethnic pupils do become scientists.

Two important studies have shown, however, thatwork experience is under-utilised as a means tostretch the career horizons of young people. Theproblem lies in how work experience placements arefound. Around half of placements are found byyoung people themselves or by their families usinglargely existing social networks. This is problematicin itself as access to work experience in many areasis determined by pre-existing personal ties whichvary considerably by the social background of pupils.Research has shown for example that one-third ofsolicitors and barristers’ firms only provide workexperience informally, responding to requests fromclients or other personal contacts, such as familyrelationships.7 Inequity of access becomes then asignificant issue. Moreover, while young peoplecommonly have freedom to choose their placements,their thinking is heavily shaped by pre-existingconceptions of vocational aspirations. The work ofPorfessor Richard Hatcher and Dr Tricia Le Gallais(Birmingham City University) has shown that youngpeople are far more likely to choose placementswhich feel comfortable and familiar to them. In sucha way, the academics demonstrate, working classpupils commonly end up in what can be seen asplacements linked to lower paying, lower status jobs

whilst middle class pupils access placements linkedto professional careers.

A further consequence of self-selection ofplacements is that participation in differentoccupational areas is highly gendered. Availabledata shows (see Table 3) that in many vocationalfields, pupil participants are overwhelmingly drawnfrom one gender.

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And yet, there is also evidence, from a 2005 study ledby Professor Becky Francis (London MetropolitanUniversity) that significant proportions of youngpeople (14% of boys and 36% of girls) would beinterested in trying a non-traditional placement.8

As noted in the government’s 2011 Social MobilityStrategy, work experience is an under-utilisedmeans to enhance social mobility in the UK.

How schools can challenge social reproductionthrough work experienceBoth the Hatcher/Le Gallais and Francis studiesconcluded that schools would be able to broaden thecareer horizons of young people by managing workexperience more closely. The former study looked athow five schools in the West Midlands managedwork experience and found that one school, serving

a highly disadvantaged area, broke the pattern ofsocial reproduction by adopting a more directiveapproach to work experience, sourcing placementsto fit the most aspirational ambitions of young peoplefollowing career and progression relateddiscussions. In this case, a much higher proportionof pupils accessed professional placements than wasthe case with schools with in-takes of similar socialcharacteristics, leading to positive consequences interms of changing pupils ambitions and studyintentions. Both studies concluded that the currentmodel of work experience could be improved tooffering young people a much broader range ofexperiences, challenging pre-conceptions, buildingbetter informed decision-making and stretchingambitions.

Engi

neer

ing

Cont

ruct

ion

& B

uild

Envi

ronm

ent

Info

rmat

ion

Tech

nolo

gy

Man

ufac

turi

ng

Trav

el &

Tou

rism

Soci

ety

Hea

lth

& D

evel

opm

ent

Bus

ines

s A

dmin

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n &

Fina

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Oth

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Publ

ic F

inan

ce

Land

-bas

ed E

nvir

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l

Crea

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& M

edia

Hos

pita

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& C

ater

ing

Reta

il

Spor

t & L

eisu

re

Hai

r & B

eaut

y

Male

Female

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

10%

30%

50%

70%

90%

Table 3. Gender split of participants in work experience placements by major vocational areas, 2009/10.

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There is also evidence from the YouGov poll to showthat providing work experience at 16 to 19 isespecially helpful in clarifying occupationalambitions. The survey segmented respondents bythe age which they had undertaken placements. Theresults, as shown below, suggest that later workexperience is significantly more valuable to careerdecision-making, and this might well be expected,

given that young people nowadays overwhelminglystay on in education to 18, deferring labour marketentry. However, while 63% of the YouGov samplerecalled doing work experience only at 14-16, just23% did it just at 16-19 with 10% undertaking aplacement at both ages.

However, it should be stressed that activityundertaken prior to the age of 16 serves animportant purpose in helping young people to makemore confident decisions about what and where tostudy after completing their GCSEs. Consequently,the evidence would suggest that a wide range ofworkplace experiences (including career talks,workplace visits, job shadowing as well as workexperience) over the duration of secondary educationwill optimise the beneficial effects of employmentengagement to career decision-making.

Insights from the research• There is a strong connection between clarity, andrealism, of career aspirations at 16 and later adultlabour market outcomes

• Young people strongly attest that work experiencehelps to clarify their career aspirations andprogression choices

• Work experience can be a very effective means ofchallenging social stereotypes about the realism ofoccupational ambitions

• Most young people, however, choose workexperience based upon pre-existing sociallystructured attitudes and expectations.Consequently, placements often fail to supportdiversity and social mobility into differentoccupational areas.

• A wide range of workplace experiences includingjob shadowing, career talks and workplace visitsalongside work experience placements oversecondary education will optimise beneficialeffects of employer engagement to careerdecision-making.

Table 4. Correlations between age work experience was undertaken and its perceived utility across three

outcome areas by young adults, 19-24. Education and Employers Taskforce/YouGov, 2011.

Age WEX was undertaken

14-16

16-19

Both ages

deciding on a career

50% (13%)

74% (29%)

76% (31%)

getting a job aftereducation

25% (7%)

48% (21%)

47% (20%)

getting into HE

19% (4%)

47% (18%)

51% (24%)

N

588-609

104-123

81-96

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Voices of young people: workexperience and career aspirations“I was sat behind a desk, and went out on a visittwice. I learnt that I don’t want to be sat behind adesk the rest of my life, so now it’s going back to thedrawing board and thinking again.” (Year 10)

“It changed my mind. I’m thinking of being aveterinary nurse now. I hadn’t known about thatbefore.” (Year 10)

“I’ll probably stay on now, because everyone I workedwith said that they did. That was something new Ilearned.” (Year 10)

“I know better now what type of engineering I’minterested in. I learnt that. Now I know where to go.”(Year 11)

“[Work experience] teaches you what you don’t wantto do or what you do want to do.” (Year 11)

“Told us about all the different things you can do. Ilearnt about what social workers do, didn’t reallyknow that before.” (Year 11)

“You get advice from people you’re surrounded by – itreally helps you to make a decision” (Year 12)

“I was thinking I would be a teacher, and after it, Iknew that I definitely didn’t want to be a teacher.Don’t know what I want to be, but not a teacher.”(Year 12)

“Work experience is about what you want to do in thelong term, about careers. Part-time jobs are just toget money.” (Year 12)

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A growing body of research has highlighted theimportance of work experience in securingadmission to university courses. While moreresearch is needed and attention given by policymakers, insights from existing studies show thatplacements can play a significant role in influencingsuccessful admissions to undergraduate coursesand that pupils attending state schools are often at adisadvantage in being able to draw on relevant workexperience to support their admission.

A survey in 2011 of the admissions requirements ofsix undergraduate courses of study offered by thethen twenty Russell Group universitiesdemonstrated that work experience and/or relatedactivities giving insight into, and experience of,vocational areas related to subjects of study wascommonly cited as an essential or desirablerequirement of applicants. As Table 5 shows, inDentistry, Medicine or Veterinary Science, workexperience is overwhelmingly demanded. In thethree other subjects surveyed, Engineering, Law andBusiness/Economics/Management, between a fifthand a third of courses ask for such experience.

Veterinary

Medicine

Dentistry

Law

Engineering

Buss/Econ/Man

Essential

0

83 % 17%

12%

9%

63%

72%22%6%

21% 79%

37%

36%55%

66%22%

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Not MentionedDesirable

Table 5: Work experience as desirable or essential requirement in admissions requirements across six

undergraduate courses at twenty Russell Group universities. Fieldwork, 2010.9

3: Work experience and...getting into university

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Analysis of admissions websites shows that suchuniversities place an emphasis on work experienceas a means of allowing applicants to demonstrate:

• insight into careers related to universityundergraduate courses

• development of skills related to the subject ofstudy

Table 5 sets out cases where work experience iscited as either a desirable or essential admissionsrequirement, but to a large extent this is a mootpoint as these are courses which typically attractmore young people with required grades than thereare places available. In such circumstances,admissions officers commonly use the PersonalStatement element of the UCAS application form todistinguish between candidates who are promptedto discuss their work experience as a primarymeans of demonstrating suitability for the course inquestion.

Dr Steve Jones (University of Manchester) hasanalysed the use of work experience within theUCAS Personal Statements of 327 applicants to onefaculty offering humanities and social sciencesdegrees at one Russell Group university. His workhighlights significant differences in the ways inwhich independent and comprehensive schoolpupils are able to draw on work experience tostrengthen their applications. Dr Jones’ classifiedthe work experience described in statements aseither ‘jobs’ (being low skill, low prestige and likelyto be paid work, such as a part-time job) and‘experience’ (being high skill, high prestige,typically unpaid experience). He foundoverwhelmingly that independent school pupilswere able to draw on ‘experience’ to support theirapplications, whilst their comprehensively educatedpeers relied on ‘jobs’.10

Dr Jones’s findings endorse the results from the2011 YouGov survey of adults aged 19-24 citedearlier in this report. When asked if workexperience undertaken at school or college wasuseful in “getting into higher education” the formerpupils of independent schools were nearly twice aslikely to agree that it was when compared to theirpeers educated in non-selective state schools.11

His current work concludes by raising the questionof whether inability to access comparably attractivework experience helps to explain why highachieving young people from non-selective stateschools are under-represented at Russell Groupuniversities. Insights from his work addssignificantly to debates surrounding social mobilityand access to the professions.

A review of how high-performing independentschools engage employers to support pupil learningand progression undertaken by the Education andEmployers Taskforce and Professor PrueHuddleston (University of Warwick) to be publishedin July 2012 shows that such schools fullyunderstand the importance of work experience touniversity admissions. Work experienceplacements are often timed for Year 12 in order tomaximise relevance to university applications andthese schools are adept at using their socialnetworks (parents and alumni especially) to findhigh quality work experience placements which arevery relevant to university aspirations. Suchschools are adept, moreover, in harnessing supportfrom alumni, and other social contacts, who oftenwork in professions of great interest to pupils and towhich specific university courses act as a gateway.The findings suggest that employers working infields where work experience influences success inadmissions to relevant university courses have aparticular obligation to ensure that placements areavailable fairly to all young people with interest andaptitude regardless of whether they, their familiesor schools, happen to have a pre-existing socialrelationship. It should also be stressed that there isstill much to learn about the relationship betweenwork experience and university admissions and thisremains an area demanding further seriousresearch.

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Insights from theresearch

• Work experience often plays an important role indetermining admission to university courses, butthis is not well understood by policy makers

• Young people taught in independent schoolsroutinely have access to high quality workexperience which is more relevant to universityadmissions than their state-educatedcounterparts

• Greater attention should be given to enablingpupils within the state sector to accessexperiences comparable with those enjoyed in theprivate sector

• Further research is needed to understand theextent to which work experience shapes universityadmissions

Work experience within universityadmissions requirements 12

“Medical Schools expect applicants to have arange of work experience for two reasons.Firstly, this demonstrates that you have arealistic insight into the profession...Workexperience is also important in enabling you todevelop (and to demonstrate that you have) therelevant skills and qualities that are essential tobecoming a good doctor.”

“It can also be helpful to obtain some workexperience... Such experiences should increasean applicant’s appreciation of why [Engineering]is important in the modern world.”

Voices of teaching staff: work experience andHE admissions. 2011 Taskforce focus group.“(Work experience) helps them make moreinformed choices about where to go. I wouldexpect it helps determine whether they will stayon their course through university. I expectthat’s why admissions offices ask for it.”“We’re told by UCAS and the universities thatour kids don’t have enough work experienceacross the board. Universities want to knowthat the choices they make are not a fantasy.”

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Academic attainment is perhaps the most interestingarea for research into the impact of work experienceon young people’s attitudes, pupil learning and,consequently, exam success. Unfortunately, it is anarea where high quality research is relatively limited.Evidence, however, from surveys and focus groupswith large numbers of both pupils and teachersprovide very similar insights into connectionsbetween experience of the workplace and ultimateacademic attainment.

Focus group research with teachers highlights twoprimary means by which spells of work experiencecan influence improved attainment. Firstly, there is asense that work experience can provide an

environment which helps to contextualise classroomlearning. Secondly, and more importantly, workexperience is seen as a ‘wake up call’ providingyoung people with powerful evidence that educationand qualifications are of high value in the labourmarket. In this way, work experience can be seen asa means of motivating young people to applythemselves more assiduously to their studies.

In 2008, some 15,000 young people aged 15 and 16completed a questionnaire after returning from workexperience placements. As set out in Table 6 below,an overwhelmingly majorities felt that the experiencehad led to a change in their attitudes towardsschooling.

A 2012 survey of teaching staff undertaken pro bonoby the National Foundation for Educational Research(NFER) on behalf of the Education and EmployersTaskforce approached the same question from theperspective of teaching staff. Based on surveyresponses from more than 700 teachers withexperience of teaching at Key Stages four and five,nearly two-thirds agreed that young people returnedfrom work experience placements better motivatedto do well at school.

Table 6. Pupil perceptions on work experience following their placement. NEBPN survey of 15,025young people, 2008. 13

I understand better why it is important to do well at school

I am more prepared to work hard in lessons and my coursework

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

50%

40%

7%

2%

42%

47%

9%

2%

4: Work experience and...academic attainment

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The results are in keeping with one previous surveyinvestigating the connection. In 2000, theDepartment for Education and Skills-commissionedresearch which asked 684 work experience co-ordinators in English secondary schools whetherthey felt that work experience served to motivatestudents to work harder in school: 16% stronglyagreed, 51% agreed, 7% disagreed (or stronglydisagreed) and 27% felt uncertain.14 The similaritybetween the two polls is striking. Whilerespondents from the 2000 sample would be wellplaced to observe changes in pupil attitudes, it couldbe argued that they had a vested interest isreporting significant impacts. The 2012 sample, bycontrast, represents a cross-section of secondaryschool teachers, few of whom are likely to havemanagerial responsibilities for work experience, butmost of whom will have observed pupils returning toclass at the end of their one or two weeks in theworkplace.

Focus groups with teachers undertaken by theEducation and Employers Taskforce have exploredthe links between work experience, motivation andattainment. These have found a consistent view that

highest achieving pupils rarely return from workexperience more motivated than they were prior tothe placement. This is explained by the fact thatthese young people already have a clear sense ofthe connection between educational success andprogression whether to university or ultimately intothe workplace.

Table 7. Teacher perceptions on the impact of work experience placements on pupil motivation.

NFER. Fieldwork, 2012. Question: What impact, if any, do work experience placements have on the motivation of KS4/5 pupils at yourschool (e.g. by helping them to better appreciate the benefits of education and qualifications)?

Pupils more motivated

No difference

Pupils less motivated

51% 17%

26%

4% 2%4% - Pupils slightly less motivated

2% - Pupils much less motivated

51% - Pupils slightly more motivated

17% - Pupils much more motivated

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

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The impact on the lowest performing cohort of pupilswas often seen as profound in focus groups, butconstrained as these are often young people facingmultiple causes of disadvantage and educationalchallenges. As one teacher at a specialisteducational unit serving pupils excluded frommainstream education argued at a Taskforce focusgroup:

“90-95% of my students would not have got aqualification without employer engagement. Theycome to us after being kicked out of five differentschools. We’re the last stop before the pupilreferal unit (PRU). We do extended placementslinked to qualifications. They won’t get fiveGCSEs, but this is the difference between themachieving nothing and beginning to achieve.They’ve spent all their lives fighting with teachers.The thing about employers is that they are notteachers and the workplace isn’t school. Theydon’t have to put up a front in front of their mates.Employers can be tough with them. They can say‘you’re sacked’. They fail time after time in class.This gives them the chance to achieve. To feelgood about themselves.”

It is the broad cohort of middle-achieving pupils, andparticularly those on the borderline of achieving keyattainment targets (such as five GCSEs) who, focusgroups argue, are likely to benefit the most. Forsuch pupils, the increase in motivation is linked to atangible educational objective. The 2012 NFERsurvey reported above found that nearly half (46%) ofteachers responding agreed that work experienceplacements increased to some extent the likelihoodof borderline pupils from reaching key attainmenttargets (see Table 8).

Source: Department for Education, Languages at Key Stage 4 2009. Evaluation of the Impact of Language Review Recommendations 46

Table 8: Teacher perceptions on the impact of work experience placements on the success of borderline pupils. NFER.

Fieldwork, 2012. Question: Focusing on pupils who are currently achieving near the borderline of key attainment targets

(such as 5 GCSEs A*-C or equivalent), to what extent do you think that work experience placements increase these

individuals' chances of reaching these targets?

Increases pupils’ chances

No or negligible effect

Reduces pupils’ chances

43% 7%

44%

4% 1%4% - Slightly reduces pupils’ chances

1% - Greatly reduces pupils’ chances

43% - Slightly increases pupils’ chances

7% - Greatly increases pupils’ chances

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

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The surveys show us that while a significantproportion of teachers do feel that work experienceimproves the chances of exam success, a similarlysized proportion feels that it does not. Moreresearch is required to understand the reasonsbehind such variation and particularly the extent towhich the perceived quality and relevance of workexperience placements influences pupilperceptions. A further pressing question relates tothe extent to which it can be predicted which pupilswill benefit most from the wake-up call provided bywork experience. It may well be that impacts aregreatest on pupils with weakest career aspirationsor who lack any part-time experience in the labourmarket. It also seems likely, from focus groupevidence with young people, that on occasion pupilslearn that qualifications are not so well respected inthe labour market as they might have believed.

An opportunity cost?Within this consideration of the link between workexperience and attainment, it is important toconsider the opportunity cost involved. In essence,does going on a placement actually reduce the examsuccess of pupils? Available evidence wouldsuggest that this is occasionally, but rarely the case.In the NFER surveys, fewer than five per cent ofteachers thought that placements would reduce themotivation of pupils or their ability to reachattainment targets. A 2008 literature review,commissioned by the then Department for Children,Schools and Families looking at high qualityresearch into the link between businessengagement with schools found, moreover, that noevidence could be found of achievement reducing asa result of employer engagement activities such aswork experience. That report, The involvement ofbusiness in education, found evidence of improvedattainment in eight out of the fifteen UK and USstudies identified as being of sufficient quality toallow firm conclusions to be made.15

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A common theme in focus groups on workexperience is the extent to which the experienceleads to a more mature outlook among pupils, andthis is validated by limited survey material onteacher attitudes. Fully 93% of the 684 workexperience co-ordinators surveyed in 2000 felt thatplacements promoted student personal and socialdevelopment, with 47% agreeing strongly. Thefinding suggests connections between experience ofthe workplace and positive behavioural change inpupils.

Optimising the attainment linkAgain, this would suggest that different pupilsrespond in different ways to their school-mediatedemployer engagement experiences. Furtherresearch, using randomised controlled trials, shouldseek to isolate the character of the motivation pushcoming from workplace exposure, in order tounderstand whether similar responses are linked toshorter activities such as job shadowing, workplacevisits or career talks. Equally, the insight that workexperience boosts classroom motivation requires usto question the common timing of placements forthe summer term of Year 10. Arguably, moresustained impacts will be felt if placements areundertaken earlier in the academic year.

Insights from the research• High proportions of both pupils and teaching staffbelieve that young people return from workexperience more motivated to do well at school

• Qualitative evidence from teaching staff suggeststhat different types of pupils respond in differentways to placements

• Pupils needing extra motivation to achieve keyattainment targets might be expected to benefitmost from the ‘wake-up’ calls provided by workexperience as extra application is likely toincrease their chances to achieving academictargets

• Lower attaining pupils can also be expected togain much from the different learningenvironment presented by extended workexperience

• Timing work experience to take place towards theend of Year 10 is unlikely to optimise theattainment benefits of placements

• Randomised controlled studies are required tofully determine the impact of work experienceplacements (and other employer engagementactivities) on pupil achievement

A teacher perspective“It’s all to do with raising aspirations. Giving theminformation they wouldn’t otherwise have on howeverything fits together. How what they do at schoolrelates to work. What they need to do. It’s showingthem that people like them do go into jobs likethat.” (2011 Taskforce focus group)

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Voices of young people: Work experience and changingattitudes to schooling“You come back more mature. More grown up. Peoplespeak to you as if you were a person and not a four yearold.” (Year 10)

“It’s like a turning point. It helps you change.” (Year 10)

“I’ve done an awful lot better in my English, Maths andScience since. I knew what I had to do to be a lawyer[after the placement]. I talked to one of the lawyerswho told me what grades I needed. And they werehigher than I expected.” (Year 10)

“At the nursery, we were told that it’s not just aboutgrades.” (Year 10 with interests in working in childcare)

“I had a shock. Learnt that you have to get the grades.It made a difference.” (Year 10)

“I’m spending more time on coursework. And if I don’tget it now, I will speak to someone.” (Year 10)

“I was more enthusiastic afterwards about school. Youknow what you’re doing now.” (Year 11)

“It makes you realise that you need to get a B or a C orabove – that you need to work.” (Year 11)

“That there’s lots of competition. I was told that I needto be on top of my game [to get the job of choice].” (Year11)

“Makes you knuckle down. Lessons that I didn’t likebefore, even if I don’t like them, I still need to make aneffort.” (Year 11)

“All the people working with us told us [at the garage]about how they hated the job and were always telling usstories about how they’d mucked about at school andgot nothing. It showed us how easy it could be to godownhill” (Year 12)

“I used to think school was so ridiculous. I hadn’trealised how hard work is and how great school is andthat you should work [at school] while you have thechance. It definitely makes you work harder [at school]”(Year 12)

“All the other people working [at the garage], they allsaid that they’d wished that they’d stayed on, It mademe think a lot.” (Year 12)

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Over recent years, and certainly in light of the WolfReport and the changing focus of Department forEducation policy, government approaches to workexperience have focused on a perceived value ofwork experience placements in ultimately helpingyoung people secure work after they leaveeducation. To date, however, there has been verylittle research into whether work experience is asuccessful means of meeting this objective.Emerging research does, however, suggest thatlinks can be made, and in many cases, strongly so.

Developing ‘employability skills’The argument for work experience placementsmaking a difference in the labour market haslargely focused on its assumed ability to developwhat are widely known as ‘employability skills’.Being the largely softer skills which allow anindividual to be personally effective in the work theydo, ‘employability skills’ have been defined in manydifferent ways by governments, employers,educational institutions and other commentators. In2009, the UK Commission for Employment andSkills helpfully reviewed such work and provided a

synthesis definition highlighting the personal skillsof self-management, thinking and solving problems,working together and communicating andunderstanding the business; the functional skills ofusing numbers, language and IT effectively; and, thewhole, wrapped around a positive approach toemployment.

Young people certainly believe that the workexperience they have undertaken helps them todevelop their own employability skills. In 2008,some 15,000 young people gave their views aboutthe extent to which the work experience placementsthey had undertaken helped them develop theirwork readiness. The full results are annexed in thisdocument. Designed in part as a test ofemployability skills accumulation, the survey foundlarge numbers of young people testifying to theopportunities presented by work experience todevelop these skills as well as increasingunderstanding of what those skills are.

Table 9. Pupil perceptions on work experience following their placement. NEBPN survey of 15,025 young people, 2008. 16

As a result of my work experience...

I was able to show my initiative in a workplace

I have developed some new skills that employersvalue (e.g. customer awareness and use of IT)

I developed my spoken communication skills (e.g.talking to adults)

I know that I can work well with a team of adults

Strongly agree

45

42

51

54

Agree

48

45

42

41

Disagree

6

10

6

4

Strongly disagree

1

2

1

1

5: Work experience and...employment

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The results (see Table 10) show very similar levels ofperceived skills development. This is especiallynoteworthy because US and Australian studies haveshown that working on a part-time basis, whilst inschool, is positively linked to better employmentoutcomes for young people after they leaveeducation.18 It is noteworthy, given the precedingdiscussion in this document, that young peoplefound significantly greater benefit from workexperience than part-time working in informingcareer decision-making.

Getting a job after educationIn 2011, the polling organisation YouGov undertook apro bono survey of 986 young Britons, aged 19-24,on behalf of the Education and Employers Taskforce.The survey explored young people’s experience ofemployer engagement activities whilst in school orcollege, such as work experience, and the impact

that such activities may have had on their adultlives. One of the primary findings from the survey(reported in the Taskforce paper, It’s who you meet)was that there are statistically significantrelationships between the volume of school-mediated employer engagement activities and thereduced likelihood of adult NEET (Not in Education,Employment or Training) status. Surveyrespondents were asked explicitly about theusefulness of any school-mediated work experienceplacements undertaken in gaining employmentafter education. On average, 30% of respondentswho had taken part in a placement felt it had helpedget a job with 10% feeling that it had helped ‘a lot’.As seen below, these averaged results disguise awide variation in experiences across pupils ofdifferent types and achievement levels.

Table 10. Mean ratings for beliefs about the value of Work Experience and Part-Time Employment,Year 10 Students, Australia, 1996. 17

These items are rated on a four-point scale where 4 = quite a bit. 3 = a fair bit. 2 = not much. 1 = nothing, so the higher themean, the more positive the assessment of the experience

Item

What work is really like?

Getting along with other people?

Following instructions?

Thinking for yourself?

Being confident?

Particular skills needed in that job?

Work conditions?

The career that you would like after school?

Work experience

3.48

3.47

3.56

3.38

3.49

3.55

3.51

3.10

Part-time job

3.44

3.54

3.64

3.50

3.55

3.50

3.45

2.31

N = 1624

It is interesting to compare the extent to which ashort block of full-time work experience developsemployability skills with that of part-timeemployment. One Australian study has done this andthe findings are worth highlighting because theyoung Australians in question would, like their Britishcounterparts, typically undertake placements of up totwo weeks duration at age 15.

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Getting a part-time job while still in educationWhile largely under-researched, available evidencedoes suggest strongly that a significant proportion –perhaps one-quarter – of pupils are offered part-time employment following a work experienceplacement. A 2011 survey of 40 learners aged 16 to19 in Cumbria found that 23% were offered paidemployment after their placement and that a further20% had discussed the prospect of possibleemployment at some future date. That survey foundthat young people often stay in touch with theemployers with whom they undertook workexperience for months or years after the placement,suggesting that work experience can be a veryeffective means of enabling young people to developuseful career-related networks as they seek careerprogression insights and further opportunities todevelop practical experience in a specific vocationalarea. In a larger 2000 survey of 801 pupils,researchers commissioned by the then Departmentfor Education and Skills found that 40% ofrespondents thought that they might get a job wherethey did their placement at some point in thefuture.19

Looked at from the employer’s perspective, anEducation and Employers Taskforce survey of 203employers, undertaken in January 2011, showedthat some 80% of 100 respondents who providedpaid employment to teenagers and also did workexperience placements had offered paid work tosomeone who had previously been on a placement.Asked whether it mattered if the work experienceplacement has been at their own place of work ornot, a majority said that it did and that it mattered alot. This is in keeping with findings reported by the

UK Commission for Employment and Skills, andother analysts, which show that employerscommonly prefer to recruit through their ownpersonal contacts. Work experience enables suchcontacts and allows social relationships to developwhich might otherwise never occur.

It is very typical for teenagers to undertake part-time work alongside their studies. There is goodevidence to show that undertaking such work ispositively connected with reduced risks of NEETstatus after education has been completed.20 Bygaining workplace experience whilst still at school,young people give themselves advantages in thecompetition for jobs with older workers. They areable to demonstrate a successful track record ofbeing in employment and will have had theopportunity to become familiar with therequirements and culture of the workplace.Logically, such experience will be optimised wherepart-time working is in a vocational area related tothe career aspirations of young people. For asignificant minority of young people, there is goodreason to believe that work experience providesopportunities to secure such relevant employment.

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A poor alignment with the labour market?As noted above, around half of work experienceplacements are sourced directly by pupils or theirfamilies. Once an employer has agreed, details arepassed to the pupil’s school or brokers working onits behalf to ensure health and safety and otheradministrative duties are undertaken. The approachincreases the risk that work experience placementssought are not representative of actual areas oflabour market demand. Recent work undertaken byteams based at the University of Glasgow and the

Royal Academy of Arts has shown that the careeraspirations of young people are commonly out ofkilter with local labour market opportunities.21

While little quantitative work has been undertakento test the extent of the misalignment, one study ofthe aspirations of Year 7 pupils mapped against themajor occupational sectors in the UK workforceshows marked disparities. See also Annex 4 formost recent data on placement distribution byoccupational sector.

Historically, work experience placements have beenoverwhelmingly sourced either by young people,schools or their agents with comparatively littleregard to employer demand for youth labour. Inmoving towards a situation where work experiencebecomes more strongly focused on enablingtransitions into work, it is important to understandthe economic sectors which have heaviest demandsfor younger workers and ensure that they are awareof, and supported in, providing work experienceopportunities. The evidence suggests that workexperience undertaken closer to ultimate labourmarket entry (i.e., at ages 16 to 19) optimisesopportunities for jobs ultimately to be secured, it

also suggests that earlier exposure can help youngpeople make more informed choices aboutdesirable qualifications and experiences to makethem as competitive as possible for later jobopenings. Data from the Education and EmployersTaskforce’s 2011 YouGov poll also suggests thatyoung people leaving school with lower levels ofqualifications are more likely to find workexperience to have been useful in securingemployment after education (see Table 4 above).

Table 11. Occupational preferences of Year 7 pupils mapped against UK labour force by sector, 2009. 22

Industry

Agriculture & Fishing

Energy & Water

Manufacturing

Construction

Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants

Transport and Communication

Banking, Finance and Insurance

Public Administration, Education and Health

Other

Total numberemployed inindustry

250,943

171,718

2,875,201

1,280,044

6,477,187

1,580,448

5,760,210

7,329,546

1.455,977

% employed inindustry

0.9

0.6

10.6

4.7

23.8

5.8

21.2

27

5.4

% of Y7 choosingthese careers(N = 483)

0.21

0.21

0

5.18

2.28

6.42

3.11

36.23

46.38

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The work of educational sociologist Carlo Raffo(University of Manchester) provides some insightinto how lower achieving young people mayparticularly benefit from periods of work experience.His close study of curriculum innovations usingextended work experience (one day a week over KeyStage 4) often demonstrated significant effects onyoung participants who were expected to struggle toreach the level 2 threshold of five GCSEs.

“What we have evidenced is that, based on theprocess of developing social capital throughtrustworthy reciprocal social relations withinindividualized networks, young people areprovided with an opportunity to gain information,observe, ape and then confirm decisions andactions with significant others and peers. Thus,everyday implicit, informal and individualpractical knowledge and understanding iscreated through interaction, dialogue, action andreflection on action within individualized andsituated social contexts.”

Raffo found on a number of occasions, young peoplewho learned significantly from their work experienceplaced themselves at an advantage when it came toultimately securing full-time employment.23

Table 12. Correlations between perceived utility of work experience in securing employment after education andhighest level of qualification achieved by young adults, 19-24. Education and Employers Taskforce/YouGov, 2011.

Highest qualification level

0

1

2

3

4

5

getting a job after education

100% (0%)

50% (42%)

38% (18%)

28% (9%)

30% (9%)

27% (5%)

N

3

24

57

397

268

65

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Insights from the research: asummary• Young people strongly believe that the workexperience helps to develop their employabilityskills

• Available survey data suggests that young peoplefeel that work experience placements developemployability skills to a similar level as part-timepaid employment

• Around half of work experience placements aresourced directly by pupils or their families, thisdoes not mean a good fit with the realities ofdemand in the labour market

• An estimated one-quarter of pupils are offeredpart-time employment following a workexperience placement

• Work experience undertaken closer to ultimatelabour market entry (aged 16 – 18) optimisesopportunities for jobs to be secured, but is too lateto inform important decisions about post-16educational and training choices

• Young people leaving education with lower levelsof qualifications appear to feel that the workexperience which they undertook was of greatestvalue in finding employment after education

Voices of young people: workexperience and employmentopportunities

“I was told that if an apprenticeship came up, Iwould probably be first choice” (Year 11 pupil)“It makes it easier to get a job because you havereferences” (Year 11 pupil)

“They said if I keep in touch [with Hair Salon], whenI’m 16 they will take me on as a trainee if I’m stillinterested. Won’t be doing it though” (Year 10 pupil)

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A number of surveys questioning large numbers ofyoung people about their perceptions of workexperience provides useful insight into the value ofthe placement they undertook. It is clear, forexample, from YouGov’s 2010 survey for the Edgefoundation that the overwhelming majority of youngpeople looked forward to their placement.

And following the placement, young peopleoverwhelmingly viewed the experience as enjoyableand satisfying.

One problematic issue with placements, given theirimportance to enhancing career planning, is that ameaningful minority of young people feel that theirplacement was not relevant to their aspirations.

Table 13. Pupil attitudes towards undertaking work experience.

Table 14. Pupil perceptions on enjoyment/satisfaction with their work experience.

Table 15. Pupil perceptions on the relevance of their work experience.

Proportion agreeing with statement: I approached [mywork experience placement] with a positive attitude.

92% YouGov for Edge, 2010. Survey of 1,123young people had a placement, agedbetween 11 to 24

93% (49%)

87% (57%)

92% (50%)

IEBE, 2008. Survey of 15,025 young peoplefollowing placement, aged 14-16

CBI, 2007. Survey of 1,034 young peoplefollowing placement , aged 14-16

IEBE, 2008. Survey of 15,025 young peoplefollowing placement, aged 14-16

Proportion agreeing that placement was enjoyable(very enjoyable)

Proportion agreeing that placement was enjoyable(very enjoyable)

Proportion agreeing that they were satisfied (verysatisfied) with the placement

7% (F)11% (M)

32%

14%

Francis, 2005. Survey of 566 young peoplefollowing placement, aged 15-16

CBI, 2007. Survey of 1,034 young peoplefollowing placement , aged 14-16

YouGov for Edge, 2010. Survey of 1,123young people had a placement, agedbetween 11 to 24

Proportion agreeing that their placement was not atall what they wanted

Proportion agreeing that their placement did notmatch their interests

Proportion agreeing that they were not wellmatched to their placement

6: The quality of work experience

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To a large extent, these statistics which suggestbetween seventy and ninety percent of young peoplefelt that they did undertake work experience whichwas relevant to their interests is a remarkabletestament to the operation of a mass system whichover the last decade has typically delivered half amillion placements a year. For those involved,however, the lost opportunity may well have beensignificant.

In 2010, YouGov questioned more than a thousandteenagers and young adults about the placementsthey had undertaken and found that around onethird complained of a poor quality experience wherestructured opportunities for learning were verylimited. The table suggests that for many youngpeople, their experience of work experience couldhave been much better.

Table 16. Pupil perceptions on the quality of their work experience..

71%

64%

59%

58%

38%

32%

32%

31%

21%

YouGov for Edge, 2010. Survey of 1,123 youngpeople had a placement, aged between 11 to 24

Proportion agreeing that they had a supportivemanager of their placement

Proportion agreeing that they were given someresponsibility during their placement

Proportion agreeing that they were given feedbackon their work or progress

Proportion agreeing that the work they undertookwas meaningful

Proportion agreeing that school/college staff wereinvolved during the placement

Proportion agreeing that they only met people inone small part of the organisation

Proportion agreeing that they only did routine ormundane tasks

Proportion agreeing that they were given objectivesto meet during the placement

Proportion agreeing that their host employer wasnot well prepared for their placement

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Such responses have informed new approaches towork experience which are more closely structuredand managed. In 2009, Sir Stuart Rose, then chairof Business in the Community, launched WorkInspiration (www.workinspiration.com) as anational employer-led campaign to “make workexperience more meaningful, relevant and inspiringfor young people.” Dozens of high profile employershave signed up to the campaign, committing toproviding placements which seek to understand theinterests and aspirations of young people, provideopportunities to understand the breadth of theworking world and improve understanding of careerprogression in the modern working world.24

Most recent advice from the Department forEducation has equally urged a more strategicapproach to work experience. It identifies goodpractice as a placement which has:

• Clear purpose, aims and objectives which arediscussed and agreed with the young person,school/college and employer/training provider

• Planning and preparation to ensure that all partiesunderstand their role and responsibilities,including induction once the young person startstheir placement

• Matching individual young people with appropriateplacements according to their interests andneeds, and considering what they may need whilethey are on the placement

• Monitoring and review during and after theplacement, to help the young person make use ofwhat he or she has learnt 25

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It makes a difference for the overwhelmingmajority of young peopleOver the last generation, work experience hasbecome a familiar element within the Britisheducational experience. For much of the last 30years, it has been assumed that young people takingpart in placements will benefit in a wide range ofpositive ways, but there has been remarkably littleenergy devoted to understanding the extent to whichthe experience contributed to meaningful outcomes.This report has gathered together evidencepublished largely over the last two years todemonstrate compelling evidence that pupilparticipation in work experience whilst in secondaryeducation for significant numbers of pupils serves toimprove career decision-making, increases thechances of accessing university courses, improvespupil motivation towards education, contributing toincreased attainment and improves chances ofsecuring employment by building networks andenhancing skills. A strong message from the workis that work experience is overwhelmingly relevantto the vast majority of learners. As an activity, it isperhaps best understood, and conceptualised,within the school to work transitions of youngpeople, helping them to explore and confirm careeraspirations and navigate their way effectivelytowards them. In thinking about work experience inthese terms, the value of post-16 experience isclear, but that is not to say, young people have notsecured significant value from experiences atyounger ages. Sixteen is a key transition point in theBritish education system and experience of theworkplace related to career interests enables youngpeople, and their families, to clarify and confirmdecisions about what they will do in the remainderof their teenage years which will be of highsignificance to their future lives.

One size fits all doesn’t workHistorically, UK schools have largely adopted a onesize fits all approach to delivering work experience.Young people have commonly undertaken a twoweek placement at the end of Year 10. As set out inthis report, this practice is unlikely to optimise themotivational benefits which two-thirds of teacherssee as stemming from placements. The practice,moreover, serves to restrict access to workexperience placements as employers face inherentlimitations in the numbers of pupils they canaccommodate at any one time. More needs to beknown about the relative effectiveness of alternativemeans of workplace exposure, notably career fairs,workplace visits and job shadowing. Perhaps, ofgreatest importance, there is an urgent need toraise awareness in schools about the existingevidence on the impact of work experience (as well,of course, to increase resources devoted tounderstanding the depth and breadth of impacts).

The new landscapeFrom April 2011, schools have been required to paythe full costs of work experience and need to be ableto make informed investment decisions at a timewhen budgets are under close scrutiny. Theimportance is high because emerging evidencesuggests that many state schools are choosing notto invest in work experience for all or some of theirpupils placing them at what may prove to besignificant disadvantages in the competition foruniversity places and employment.

7: Work experience: opportunitiesand obstacles

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The urgency is compounded by two factors. Firstly,increases in youth unemployment (andunderstanding of the long-term scarring effect ithas on individuals) and in the costs of universityeducation (in England) mean that the penaltiesfacing young people who enter the labour marketpoorly prepared for job opportunities areunprecedentedly high. Secondly, in some parts ofEngland, gaps have emerged in the availability oflocal brokerage between schools and employers.Research presented to the Education and EmployersTaskforce’s Working Group on Work Experiencehighlighted the fact that where school may typicallypay five to ten thousand pounds to a broker tomanage placements for a typical year group, thecosts to a school in managing the same process arecommonly considerably higher.

Questions of equity and effectivenessThis paper raises, moreover, two serious questionsabout how work experience currently operates.Firstly, there is good reason to believe that whileaccess to high quality relevant work experience is ofreal value to the progression of young people, it isnot equitably accessed by young people of differentsocial backgrounds. Too much work experience isaccessible only on an informal basis. The culture ofyoung people, with their families, commonly findingtheir own placements compounds the risk of socialinequality. Given the importance of work experiencewithin school to work transitions, its importance isespecially high to pupils from backgrounds wherefamily social networks are weak, such as the twomillion children who live in workless households.Good research shows too that young people fromdisadvantaged backgrounds have most to gain fromwork experience which is managed andpersonalised to stretch aspirations, rather than fallback on comfort zones. Secondly, there is little evidence to suggest thatwork experience placements are well aligned with

the labour market, responding as they do more topupil choices than reflecting areas of greatestlabour market demand. Consequently,opportunities are lost to raise pupil awarenessabout the breadth of local employment prospects.

What employers need to knowFor employers, a key point from this report is thatwork experience is a very effective means ofinforming young people about jobs and what theyshould do to optimise their chances of achievingthem. In this way, if in no other, the provision ofhigh quality work experience deserves a centralplace in any talent pipeline strategy. Manyemployers already recognise this and the work ofthe CIPD and UKCES to further raise awareness isto be applauded. However, there is a simpleobstacle preventing many employers from offeringwork experience: no one asks them. There is agreat opportunity to support schools, and reducetheir costs incurred, by making it as easy foremployers to signal their willingness to offer workexperience as it is for employees signal theirwillingness to offer career talks through Inspiringthe Future (www.inspiringthefuture.org). Byadopting a similar approach to work experience,connecting employers with schools and/or theirintermediaries, it becomes possible to simplify a keyaspect of work experience and this is an objective ofthe Education and Employers Taskforce and itspartners. In so doing, it contributes towards a morestrategic approach to work experience in keepingwith its importance to young people, schools and toour national prosperity.

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Annex 1: Members of the Education and Employers Taskforce ExpertWorking Group on Work Experience, 2011

Josie Armitage UKCES Senior Manager

Paul Bell National Children's Bureau

Dave Brockington ASDAN Trustee

Nick Chambers Education and Employers Taskforce Director

Barbara Chantrill Leicestershire Education Business Company Chief Executive

Louis Coiffait Pearson Education Policy Manager

Gary Durbin Schools Network

John Fairhurst Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) President

James Fothergill CBI Head of Education &

Skills

Jenni French Gatsby Foundation

Leanne Furguson Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership

Sarah Gibb Business in the Community (BITC) Director, Talent and

Skills

Mary Hanrahan The Ellen Wilkinson School

Barbara Hearn OBE National Children's Bureau Deputy Chief Executive

Kate Holt The Richard Rose Federation of Academies Principal of 14-19

Education

Lynda Howe Brune Park Community College

Stephen Jackson Department for Education

Peter Lambert Business in the Community (BITC) Deputy Chief Executive

Tricia Le Gallais Birmingham City University Researcher

Anthony Mann Education and Employers Taskforce Director of Policy and

Research

Joan McVittie Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) ASCL President

Katerina Rüdiger Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Skills Policy Adviser

Helen Sanson Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership

Katherine Sharpe BITC Account Manager

Christine Sydenham The Ellen Wilkinson School Head

Deborah Waddell Devon EBP CEO

Tony Watts Consultant

Attending

James Mee HM Treasury

James McLellan HM Treasury

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Annex 2: Young People’s views on work experience. A survey of 15,025pupils following their work experience placement, 2008. NEBPN NationalSupport Group for Work Experience (2008), Students’ Perceptions of WorkExperience. Department for Children, Schools and Families

As a result of my work experience...

1. I better understand the skills employers arelooking for (please refer to the chart)

2. I know which personal qualities employersthink are important

3. I was able to show my initiative in a workplace

4. I have developed some new skills thatemployers value(e g customer awareness, anduse of IT)

5. I developed my spoken communication skills,e.g. talking to adults

6. I know I can work well with a team of adults

7. I was able to show a positive attitude at work

8. I feel more confident in handling new situations

9. I have a better understanding of my ownstrengths and weaknesses

10. Do you understand better the importance ofproblem solving at work?

11. I understand better why it is important to dowell at school

12. I am more prepared to work hard in lessonsand my coursework

13. I understand better how workplaces areorganised

14. I have experience of working with people whohave different roles

15. I have a better understanding of people‟srights and responsibilities at work, e.g. health andsafety & equal opportunities

16. I am clearer about what I want to do in myfuture education and career (post-16)

Strongly agree

34

37

45

42

51

54

60

45

35

29

50

42

41

47

40

37

Agree

60

57

48

45

42

41

37

48

53

53

40

47

51

45

50

37

Disagree

4

5

6

10

6

4

2

6

10

10

7

9

6

6

8

18

Strongly disagree

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

1

1

1

6

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Annex 3: Three focus groups withyoung people at a Northwestsecondary school

Focus group with Year 10 pupils, March 2011Eight young people joined the group. They had allcompleted a work experience placement of oneweek’s duration in the preceding January. With oneexception (who had experienced a workplace visit),the work experience placement represented the onlyinteraction with employers they had had during theirschooling to date. A school member of staff sat inon the meeting, but did not contribute.

What were their main reflections on theplacement?“Good.”

“Tiring, too long.”

“Better than school.”

“I got a good report.”

“Treated with more respect.”

“Some of my friends said theirs were rubbish.”

“You get to do stuff you wouldn’t normally do atschools. I had to deal with confidential files. Signforms.”

“It was what I wanted.”

“You come back more mature. More grown up.People speak to you as if you were a person and nota four year old.”

“It’s a like a turning point. It helps you to change.”

What was the process for finding the placement?Three of the eight participants sourced theirplacements through family connections.

“We got a letter and had to fill it out.”

“I went into the shops and asked.”

“I only wanted to do something on law and the onlyplace that was left was at the law centre. Then I hadto have a meeting.”

“The vets where I did mine, is where we take ouranimals. I asked them.”

“I phoned up the architects and asked and they saidit was fine.”

Did going on work experience have any influenceon their school life?A majority agreed that the placement had had apositive impact on their application at school.

“I was less lazy afterwards.”

“I’ve done an awful lot better in my English, Mathsand Science since. I knew what I had to do to be alawyer [after the placement]. I talked to one of thelawyers who told me what grades I needed. Andthey were higher than I expected.”

“I’m spending more time on coursework. And if Idon’t get it done now, I will speak to someone.”

“At the nursery, we were told that it’s not just aboutgrades.”

“I had a shock. Learnt that you have to get thegrades. It made a difference.”

Did the work experience help to inform thinkingabout future careers?Six of the eight had completed placements whichthey had chosen because they were relevant tocareer aspirations.

“Got us thinking.”

“Made me think that it would be proper interesting”[to work in the placement career field].

Location of work experience

Architects

Vets

Children’s Nursery

Law Centre

Hair salon

Office

Primary School nursery

Law Courts

Participant

Anthony (M)

Beth (F)

Catriona (F)

Connor (M)

Danielle (F)

Emily (F)

Hannah (F)

Maisy (F)

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“I was sat behind a desk, and went out on a visittwice. I learnt that I don’t want to be sat behind adesk the rest of my life, so now it’s going back to thedrawing board and thinking again. I’m still interestedin law. I got to speak to the police and some of theyoung offenders and they opened up to me and toldme their life stories and trusted me. I thought thatwas really good. ”

“It changed my mind. I’m thinking of being aveterinary nurse now. I hadn’t known about thatbefore.”

“I’ll probably stay on now, because everyone I workedwith said that they did. That was something new Ilearned.”

Did the work experience placement lead to an offerof real work?One had secured a part-time job out of theplacement, two were offered the prospect of futureemployment opportunities.

“Because people liked what I did, they offered me ajob. Every Thursday after school I go [to the lawcentre] to help with other work experience kids fromother schools. Sometimes parents bring their kids infrom nursery and I would play with the kids.”

“They said if I keep in touch [with Hair Salon], whenI’m 16 they will take me on as a trainee if I’m stillinterested. Won’t be doing it though.”

“If I need a placement, I can go there.” [School]

“If I continue with architecture, they said they wouldgive me a part-time job.”

Would they change anything about the workexperience placements?“Should have been longer.”

“I wanted to do two different things.”

Annex 4: Work experience byoccupational sector, 2009/10.Distribution of placements.

18%

15%

13%

12%

7%

6%

5%

5%

5%

4%

4%

3%

1%

1%

1%

100%

Sport and Leisure

Society, Health and Development

Business, Administration and Finance

Retail

Public Services

Engineering

Travel and Tourism

Land-based and Environmental

Hair and Beauty

Hospitality and Catering

Construction and the Built Environment

Creative and Media

Information Technology

Manufacturing

Other

Total

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Focus group with Year 11 pupils,March 2011 Ten young people joined the group. All hadundertaken work experience of one week’s durationduring the summer (June/July) of Year 10. Pupilswere selected by teaching staff as individuals whohad experienced a ‘successful’ placement. Four ofthe ten knew their employers prior to the placement– mainly through family connections. Eight sourcedtheir own work experience, two were helped byteachers. A teacher sat in on the group, and onlymade comments to clarify the school’s workexperience policy.

What were their main reflections on the

placement?“Different.”

“Something different.”

“Gave you independence for the week.”

Did the work experience help to inform thinkingabout future careers?

“It teaches you what you don’t want to do or whatyou want to do.”

“Confirms that’s the job you want.”

“Not that job.”

“Told us about all the different things you can do. I

learnt about what social workers do, didn’t reallyknow that before.”

“I made my mind up after it.”

“It opened doors.”

“I know better now what type of engineering I’minterested in. I learnt that. Now I know where togo.”

Did they learn anything while on work experience?

“It was a learning curve”

“I developed skills”

“New software, new skills.”

Did going on work experience have any influence ontheir school life?

“I was more enthusiastic afterwards about school.You know what you’re doing now.”

“It makes you realise that you need to get a B or a Cor above – that you need to work.”

“That there’s lots of competition. I was told that Ineed to be on top of my game” [to get the job ofchoice]

“Makes you knuckle down. Lessons that I didn’t likebefore, even if I don’t like them, I still need to makean effort.”

“Nothing.”

“Learnt what I want to do and what I need to do for it.”

“Refreshes you.”

Did the work experience placement lead to an offerof real work?

Three of the ten secured part-time employmentfollowing their placement. A fourth was offered ajob, but declined it. Two were asked to stay in touchin case an appropriate job did come up in the future.

“I was told that if an apprenticeship came up, Iwould probably be first choice.”

“It makes it easier to get a job because you havereferences.”

Location of work experience

Probation Service

Museum

Children’s Nursery

Fencing Contractor

Computer Shop

Engineering Design

Courts Service

Primary School

Hair Salon

Electrician

Participant

Alex (M)

Dan (M)

Holly (F)

Jake (M)

Jamie (M)

Joe (M)

Michael (M)

Natalie (F)

Nicky (F)

Phil (M)

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Post-focus group discussion with class teacher

Q: Does work experience have an impact on theirschool work? Do you observe them working harderafterwards?

A: When they come back, certainly for the first twoweeks after, they are more focused, but lose it again.It is a week at the end of Year 10. I’d say though that75% come back and realise better what school is for.If the parents are career-driven, the pupils are. If it’sa workless house, we need to give them moreinformation about work to help them strive.

Q: How easy/difficult is it to find the right workexperience placements?

A: It was really hard to give much choice this year.The state of the economy means that there is lesschoice.

Q: If it was no longer a universal entitlement and youhad to target the work experience, how would you goabout it?

A: It’s hard to differentiate. The working-class kidsdo often have access to a trade through their families.They can get five GCSEs D-G and then go into a trade.I think we should target the gifted and talented toshow them what they are capable of. And target thepupils who can’t decide. Ones who are coasting, withno drive. The driven ones will push themselves. Theywill do work experience in their holidays. That couldbe done. I’d target the borderline kids the most –they haven’t got the drive. They need a reason. Lotsof them we’re working with to get five GCSEs. Theycoast because they are uncertain about what theywant to do at 16. They need a reason.

Would they make any changes to the workplacements they experienced?

“Should be two weeks. Not enough variety.”

“You should get two different opportunities. Wouldmake you to think more.”

“Should be longer.”

“I wanted to do two different things.”

“You should have 2 or 3 different ones, at differenttimes of the year.”

“Everyone should do work experience in Year 10 or 11.”

“You should do it in year 9 before you choose youroptions.”

“A week in year 9 and a week in year 10 would begood.”

“Year 10 is good. It’s when you start to think aboutyour future.”

Do they think that work experience would be betterif available between 16-19 than 14-19?

“It’s too late. You’ve already made your choices.”

Would they like other opportunities to interact withemployers as part of their schooling?

“Would be good to talk about careers. Speak topeople in work. They know what they are doing,what they did to get there. People in their 20s.”

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Focus group with Year 12 pupils,March 2011

Eleven Year 12 pupils joined the group. All werestudying ‘A’ levels and all were intending to progressto Higher Education, but had yet to begin theapplication process. Each had one week workexperience, mainly in year 10. Two of theparticipants (*) had studied a Young Apprenticeshipat Key Stage 4 with fifty days work experience. Oneof the participants ($) had completed 6-7 weeks intotal of work experience, arranging placementsherself and a further pupil had undertaken workexperience placements of more than 11 daysduration. Half of those present had also been on aworkplace visit. No other employer engagementactivities had been undertaken by any member ofthe group. Pupils were not accompanied by a staffmember.

What were their main reflections on theplacement?“It builds confidence.”

“It breaks a boundary. You don’t know anythingabout world of work before hand.”

Did the work experience help to inform thinkingabout future careers?There was general agreement that workexperience, in contrast to part-time work, helpedinformed careers thinking. Five of the participantschanged their career aspirations after theplacement.

“You get advice from people you’re surrounded by –it really helps you make a decision.”

“Work experience is about what you want to do inthe long term, about careers. Part-time jobs arejust to get money.”

“It’s totally different. Part-time work helps you getby, work experience helps increase yourconfidence.”

“I was thinking I would be a teacher, and after it, Iknew that I definitely didn’t want to be a teacher.Don’t know what I want to be, but not a teacher.”

“I’d been thinking about medicine, and changed mymind to teaching.”

“I’d wanted to be an archaeologist and changed mymind to doing something in TV.”

“I changed my mind about wanting to be a doctor.”

“It reinforced my thinking. I wanted to be a teacherand still do.”

“A teacher gave me advice on ‘A’ levels, on whatwould keep me in good stead.”

“It can help you get your ideal job.”

Location of work experience

Police

Building site

1. School 2. Department store

Charity Shop

Library

Garage*

Primary School ($)

School

Garage*

Regional newspaper

School

Participant

Chris (M)

John (M)

Lauren (F)

Lucy (F)

Lucy (F)

Niall (M)

Rachel (F)

Rachel (F)

Richard (M)

Stuart (M)

Tom (M)

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What value is there in being about to talk toemployers about career aspirations?Four of the participants had spoken to someonefrom a career area they were interested in.

“I’d jump at it, if I had the chance.”

“If you’ve a field in mind, there should be moreopportunity to talk to someone in that field.”

“It would be nice to have a link – at universityespecially. We’re really wary of going to universityand making the wrong decision.”

“[Name of town] doesn’t have a wide range ofbusiness. There’s not much to go on. You need tolook for them to find them. I spoke to someone inan advertising firm in London and that wasbrilliant.”

“I’d like more one-on-one chance to talk aboutdifferent courses from university. Just to get theinformation. So I can check everything out. Itshould be personal, individual.”

“There should be more trips to businesses, forsmall groups to go to workplaces.”

What is the best age to do a placement?All agreed that placements should be early,overwhelmingly agreeing on Year 10 as thepreferred age.

“By the time you get to sixth form, you’ve probablygot a job already. It’s good preparation for getting areal job if you do the placement earlier. If you do itin year 10, you get to see what you want to do,there’s time to change your mind.”

“You know where to set your sights.”

“If you always wanted to do something, it’s a bit of atest to see if it’s right.”

“It’s too late by the time you’re doing ‘A’ levels.”

“It shouldn’t be compulsory in sixth form, but thereshould be chance to do it, so you can checksomething out. You’re under a lot of pressure [insixth form] from yourself to do well in your ‘A’ levels.If it is done, it should be targeted, high quality.”

“Work experience can change ‘A’ level choices. Youdon’t want to go to university and find you’ve madethe wrong choice. There should be someone forcareers advice, and be able to do work experience ifstill relevant. There should be more links andorganised days to speak to people from the subjectswe do.”

Did going on work experience have any influenceon their school life?Two of the participants said that they had changedtheir ‘A’ level choices as a consequence of workexperience.“Doing a placement [with the police], helped meunderstand what subjects would be greatestrelevance to the police.”

“Increased my motivation.”

“Kept me motivated.”

“All the people working with us told us [at garage]about how they hated the job and were alwaystelling us stories about how they’d mucked about atschool and got nothing. It showed us how easy itcould be to go downhill.”

“I used to think school was so ridiculous. I hadn’trealised how hard work is and how great school isand that you should work [at school] while you havethe chance. It definitely makes you work harder [atschool].”

“I did the young apprenticeship at a garage to be amechanic. All the other people working there, theyall said that they’d wished that they’d stayed on. Itmade me think a lot.”

Did the work experience placement lead to anoffer of real work?Just one participant was offered a job when theyreached 16 and one was told to stay in touch. Asmall number of friends got jobs after workexperience, one person known to many of theparticipants was recommended to lots of employersby the work experience employer leading to manyjob opportunities.

Does work experience have any relevance toprogression to higher education? [Applying to higher education] “is daunting. There’sno one who you can talk to.”

“We’re not advised. No one’s really talked to us.We’ve not had careers advice. Some Newcastleadmissions people came last year, that was good.”

“All my work experience has been at primaryschools. Because I’ve already worked there and Ican get a recommendation from the head teacher, Ithink it will help me to get to the university where Iwant to. People’s grades might be the same, but I’llhave the experience and recommendation.”

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Copies of many of the documents referenced below are availableat www.educationandemployers.org/research.aspx

Ahier J et al (2000) “School work experience: young people andthe labour market” Journal of Education and Work 13: 273-288

AIR UK (2008), The involvement of Business in Education: A rapid

evidence assessment of measurable impacts. Department forChildren, Schools and Families

Atherton, G., Cymbir, E., Roberts, K., Page, L. & Remedios, R.(2009), How young people formulate their views about the future –

exploratory research. DCSF.

CBI (2007), Time well spent – Embedding employability in work

experience.

Department for Education, “Work experience made simple”:http://www.education.gov.uk/popularquestions/employersandtraining/workexperience/a00200928/work-experience-made-simple.Accessed, April 3 2012.

Eddy Adams Consultants (2008), Work Experience in Scotland.

The Scottish Government.

Francis A & Sommerlad H (2009) “Access to legal workexperience and its role in the (re)production of legal professionalidentity” International Journal of the Legal Profession 16: 63-86

Francis B et al (2005), Gender equality in work experience

placements for young people. Equal Opportunities Commission.

Hatcher R & Le Gallais T (2008), The work experience placements

of secondary school students: widening horizons or reproducing

social inequality? Birmingham City University

Hillage J et al (2001), Pre-16 Work Experience Practice in

England: An Evaluation. Department for Education andEmployment.

Hodgkinson L & Hamill L (2010) “Pre-16 school work experienceand civil engineering careers” Proceedings of the Institution of

Civil Engineering, 163: 131-36.

Hodkinson P, Sparkes A C & Hodkinson H (1996)¸Triumph and

Tears: Young People, Markets and the Transition from School to

Work. London: David Fulton.

Huddleston P, Mann A & Dawkins J (2012 forthcoming),

Jones S (2012), Work Experience and the UK University

Admissions System: comparing UCAS statements according to

School Type. Education and Employers Taskforce/Centre forEducation and Industry (University of Warwick) London seminarseries.

Mann A (2012), It’s who you meet: why employer contacts at

school make a difference to the employment prospects of young

adults. London: Education and Employers Taskforce

Mann A with Lopez D & Stanley J (2010), What is to be gained

through partnership? Exploring the value of education-employer

relationships. London: Education and Employers Taskforce

Mann A with Spring C, Evans D & Dawkins J (2011), The

importance of experience of the world of work in admissions to

Russell group universities: a desktop review of admissions criteria

for six courses. London: Education and Employers Taskforce

NEBPN National Support Group for Work Experience (2008),Students’ Perceptions of Work Experience. Department forChildren, Schools and Families

Neilson G R & McNally J G (2010) “Not choosing nursing: Workexperience and career choice of high academic achieving schoolleavers” Nurse Education Today 30: 9-14

Norris, E. (2011) Not Enough Capital. Royal Society of Arts

Patton W & Smith E (2010) “Part-time work of high schoolstudents: impact on employability, employment outcomes andcareer development” Australian Journal of Career Development

19 (1): 54-62

Putell, K M & McLoyd V C (2011) “A Longitudinal Investigation ofEmployment Among Low-Income Youth: Patterns, Predictors, andCorrelates” Youth & Society XX (X): 1-22

Raffo C (2003) “Disaffected Young People and the Work-relatedlearning Curriculum at Key Stage 4: Issues of social capitaldevelopment and learning as a form of cultural practice” Journal

of Education and Work 16:1, 69-86

Raffo C (2006) “Disadvantaged young people accessing the newurban economies of the post-industrial city” Journal of Education

Policy 21:1, 75-94

Raffo C & Reeves M (2000) “Youth transitions and SocialExclusion: Developments in Social Capital Theory” Journal of

Youth Studies 3

Rennison, J. et al (2005), Young people not in Education,

Employment or Training: Evidence from the Educational

Maintenance Allowance Pilots Database. Department forEducation and Skills

Ruhm, C (1997) “Is High School Employment Consumption orInvestment?” Journal of Labor Economics 14 (4): 735-776

Shamash J & Shoesmith K (2011), Transforming Work Experience

into Work Inspiration – the business benefits. London: City &Guilds Centre for Skills Development

Shandra C L & Hogan D P (2008) “School-to-work programparticipation and the post-high school employment of young adultswith disabilities” Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 29: 117-130

Smith E & Green A (2005), How workplace experiences while at

school affect career pathways. Australian Government.

Smith P J et al (2004) “Student experiences of work placement inschool-based vocational programs” Education + Training 46: 262-268

Springate I et al (2008), Why choose physics and chemistry? The

influences on physics and chemistry subject choices of BME

students. Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

St. Clair, R et al (2011), The influence of parents, places and

poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations. JosephRowntree Foundation

Staff, J. et al (2010) “Uncertainty in Early OccupationalAspirations: Role Exploration or Aimlessness?” Social Forces 89

Watts A G (1996) “Experience-based learning about work” in WattsA G, Law B, Killeen J, Kidd J M & Hawthorn R eds, Rethinking

Careers Education and Guidance – Theory, Policy and Practice.

London: Routledge

Yates, S. et al (2010) “Early Occupational Aspirations andFractured Transitions: A Study of Entry into ‘NEET’ Status in theUK” Journal of Social Policy 10

References

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Endnotes1 See Watts A G (1996) “Experience-based learning aboutwork” in Watts A G, Law B, Killeen J, Kidd J M & HawthornR eds, Rethinking Careers Education and Guidance –

Theory, Policy and Practice. London: Routledge. In theDepartment for Children, Schools and Families (2008), The

Work-related Learning Guide (Second Edition), theunderlying aims of work-related learning are given as:develop the employability skills of young people; provideyoung people with the opportunity to ‘learn by doing’ and tolearn from experts; raise standards of achievement ofstudents; increase the commitment to learning, motivationand self-confidence of students; encourage young peopleto stay in education; enable young people to develop careerawareness and the ability to benefit from impartial andinformed information, advice and guidance; support youngpeople’s ability to apply knowledge, understanding andskills; improve young people’s understanding of theeconomy, enterprise, finance and the structure of businessorganisations, and how they work; and encourage positiveattitudes to lifelong learning.

2 In setting up and running a work experience programmethere are organisational and curriculum issues to beundertaken. Typically where work experience is centrallyorganised (i.e., by an external organisation eg EBPO),organisational tasks are shared with the school butcurriculum work is primarily the responsibility of theschool. Organisation includes: finding placements;maintaining an employer database; health and safetychecking and safeguarding plus revisits; matchingstudents to placements; monitoring students during theplacement; evaluation. Curriculum includes: preparingstudents; briefing employers; work experience logs,diaries and workbooks; debriefing students; evaluation;work-based assignments linked to courses.

3 The principal cost of work experience organisation isstaff time involved in the administrative and curriculumtasks cited above. A 1997-98 national DfEE survey foundthat on average schools spent 38 days of teacher time onall aspects of work experience (i.e. both organisational andcurriculum tasks). The 2001 Hillage evaluation of pre-16work experience found that teachers and administrators inschools spent an average of 160-170 hours (or c.23 days)organising work experience (excluding curriculum-relatedtasks). The evaluation found that in 2000 the average unitcost of work experience was £24.75 and the range was £5-£45. Where schools contributed to the costs of centralorganisation the mean average payment was £16.05.Costs included: health and safety checks; full placementand matching services; salary costs; administration;stationery; training; and travel.

In contrast the Wolf Review stated that the costs oforganising a school-based work experience programmeare the equivalent of at least half a full-time seniorteacher’s salary (which can be estimated at £24,000) plussubstantial administrative support (which can be estimatedat £5,000). On the basis of a seven form entry school with210 students the school costs would be £29,000, i.e. a unitcost of £138. Disadvantages of this model are that schoolstend not to have a secure, vetted database of employers.This model also causes an additional burden for employerswho have to deal with uncoordinated requests fromstudents and teachers.

During 2009-10 data on unit costs was provided to the

Education and Employers Taskforce by 11 EBPO areasrepresenting 20.9% of placements during the year. Therange in unit costs was between £19 and £53 with anaverage unit cost of £37. The average for the eightreporting EBPOs serving one LA area was £38 (range £19-£53) and for the three sub-regional EBPOs thecorresponding figure was £31 (range £22-£40). In 7 of the11 areas the schools contributed to the cost of provisionand here the YPLA grant was £2,270,303 (69.5%) and theschool contribution was £995,080 (30.5%). In the exampleabove with a centrally organised scheme it is reasonable toadd the £5,000 administrative cost (as typically they liaisewith administrators rather than teachers following theWorkforce agreement). So the total cost of the centralisedscheme would be £38 x 210 = £7,980 + £5,000 schooladministration costs = £12,980, i.e. a total unit cost of £62.Using the same methodology, the unit cost for a sub-regionally managed scheme would be £55.

4 Yates, S. et al (2010) “Early Occupational Aspirations andFractured Transitions: A Study of Entry into ‘NEET’ Statusin the UK” Journal of Social Policy 10; Staff, J. et al (2010)“Uncertainty in Early Occupational Aspirations: RoleExploration or Aimlessness?” Social Forces 89

5 NEBPN National Support Group for Work Experience(2008), Students’ Perceptions of Work Experience. DCSF;Francis, B. et al (2005), Gender equality in work experienceplacements for young people. Equal OpportunitiesCommission; Rennison, J. et al (2005), Young people not in

Education, Employment or Training: Evidence from the

Educational Maintenance Allowance Pilots Database.

Department for Education and Skills. Smith, P. J., Dalton,J. & Dolheguy (2004) “Student experiences of workplacement in school-based vocational programs”Education + Training 46:5, 262-68 uses a sample of 446Australian secondary pupils on vocational pathways tocompare experiences and perceptions of students who hadundertaken a short work experience placement and thosewho had not. The authors find “work placement has beenshown to have significant advantages in assisting youngpeople towards a post-school decision, and the opportunityto develop insights into at least one specific form ofemployment. There outcomes of work placement providestudents with increased agency over the decisions theymake on eventual employment and on the processes theyuse to achieve those.” (p.268). See also, Smith, E. & Green,A (2005), How workplace experiences while at school

affect career pathways. National Centre for VocationalEducation Research.

6 Mann A (2012), It’s who you meet: why employer

contacts at school make a difference to the employment

prospects of young adults. London: Education andEmployers Taskforce

7 Francis A & Sommerlad H (2009) “Access to legal workexperience and its role in the (re)production of legalprofessional identity” International Journal of the Legal

Profession 16: 63-86

8 Francis B et al (2005), Gender equality in work

experience placements for young people. London: EqualOpportunities Commission.

9 Mann A with Spring C, Evans D & Dawkins J (2011), The

importance of experience of the world of work in

admissions to Russell group universities: a desktop review

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of admissions criteria for six courses. London: Education andEmployers Taskforce

10 Jones S (2012), Work Experience and the UK University

Admissions System: comparing UCAS statements according

to School Type. Education and Employers Taskforce/Centre forEducation and Industry (University of Warwick) Londonseminar series:www.educationandemployers.org/research.aspx

11 The YouGov survey showed that 25% of young adults whohad been fully educated within non-selective state schoolsfound their work experience to have been useful in getting intouniversity (of which 6% said it was very useful), compared to28% (11% a lot) of former grammar school pupils and 42%(13%) of former independent school pupils.

12 Ibid.

13 NEBPN National Support Group for Work Experience (2008),Students’ Perceptions of Work Experience. Department forChildren, Schools and Families.

14 Hillage J et al (2001), Pre-16 Work Experience Practice in

England: An Evaluation. Department for Education andEmployment.

15 AIR UK (2008), The involvement of Business in Education:

A rapid evidence assessment of measurable impacts.

Department for Children, Schools and Families.

16 NEBPN National Support Group for Work Experience (2008),Students’ Perceptions of Work Experience. Department forChildren, Schools and Families.

17 Fullarton, S. (1999). Work Experience and Work Placements

in Secondary School Education, Longitudinal Surveys ofAustralian Youth (LSAY) Research Report 10,<[http://research.acer.edu.au/lsay_research/70]>, Accessedon 20 January, 2010

18 Ruhm, C (1997) “Is High School Employment Consumptionor Investment?” Journal of Labor Economics 14 (4): 735-776

19 Hillage J et al (2001), Pre-16 Work Experience Practice in

England: An Evaluation. Department for Education andEmployment, 113, 140

20 For a discussion of the links between teenage NEET andpoor workplace experience, see Mann A with Lopez D &Stanley J (2010), What is to be gained through partnership?

Exploring the value of education-employer relationships.

London: Education and Employers Taskforce

21 St. Clair, R et al (2011), The influence of parents, places

and poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations. JosephRowntree Foundation; Norris, E. (2011) Not Enough Capital.Royal Society of Arts

22 Atherton, G., Cymbir, E., Roberts, K., Page, L. & Remedios,R. (2009), How young people formulate their views about the

future – exploratory research. DCSF, 18. The survey sampled670 pupils.

23 Raffo C & Reeves M (2000) “Youth transitions and SocialExclusion: Developments in Social Capital Theory” Journal of

Youth Studies 3:2, 151. See also: Raffo C (2003) “Disaffected

Young People and the Work-related learning Curriculum atKey Stage 4: Issues of social capital development and learningas a form of cultural practice” Journal of Education and Work16:1, 69-86; Raffo C (2006) “Disadvantaged young peopleaccessing the new urban economies of the post-industrialcity” Journal of Education Policy 21:1, 75-94

24 Shamash J & Shoesmith K (2011), Transforming Work

Experience into Work Inspiration – the business benefits.

London: City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development.

25 Department for Education “Work experience made simple:good practice” www.education.gov.uk. Accessed on 4 April2012.

This report was designed & produced by James Stokes atPOPmedia Ltd. www.popmedia.co.uk. 01273 686986

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