Why Offer Work Experience?

Work experience supports young people to make career decisions, develop employability skills and support successful transition in to FE, HE, Apprenticeships and the workplace.

As a school it will help you to achieve the Gatsby Benchmarks with particular focus on;

Benchmark Number 5 (Encounters with employers and employees)

Benchmark Number 6 (Experiences of workplaces)

Testimonials

Karen Stanyard, Careers Lead, Seaford Head School. 

“The main reason we wanted to open up work experience to a whole year group was to help us achieve the Gatsby 6 benchmark as we haven’t offered work experience to year 10 for a long time and previously only offered it for year 12 students. As a careers adviser I have already noticed a huge difference with my year 10 career meetings in that these experiences are helping students with their future career decisions/ preferences and learning lots of work related skills.”

Laura Linch, Careers Lead, Robertsbridge Community College.

"We believe that work experience opens doors for all our year 10 students to have a meaningful experience of the world of work. This fantastic opportunity enables our students to try out a possible career, gain confidence and valuable life skills and make contacts with potential future employers."

Work Experience Year 10 Evaluations

Each academic year the East Sussex County Council work experience team undertake an online survey for year 10 students who undertook a block week placement.

87% of students said work experience gave them a better understanding of what employers need from their employees and 84% said it helped them to develop the skills they need for the workplace.

84% of students said work experience made them more aware of different careers and 77% said it increased their self-confidence.

“All employers require punctuality, suitable clothing, a good attitude, good relationships with others and a good standard of work.”

“They look for someone hard-working and innovative, someone they can trust and rely on, and someone who enjoys what they're doing”

“I already had a few ideas of what would like to do after school and this work experience helped me narrow that down”

“By completing my work experience placement, it has helped me look at a wider area of different job options that I could consider for the future and has taught me to be more open minded about different courses and career paths I could take once I leave school.”