Is it Possible to Give Every Young Person Two Weeks of Work Experience?

Of the many commitments made by the new Labour government, one stands out particularly to us here at Springpod: delivering 50 hours of quality work experience (equivalent of 2 weeks' worth) to every young person.

Insight from the Youth Voice Census Report 2023 found 48% of young people report not having the option to gain work experience while at secondary school.

That deficit represents a mountain to climb and begs the question: is it really possible to give every young person 50 hours of quality work experience during this parliament?

Understanding the pledge: The scale of the task

The most recent census of England and Wales took place in March 2021 and registered over 5.6 million young people aged 10-17. Fast forward three years on to where we are now, this group of students will be aged 13-20 and in the key decision-making points of their education and early career journey.

Using results reported in the Youth Voice Census report 2023 we can estimate that approximately just shy of 2.7 million did not receive work experience while at secondary school. How can an already stretched education sector deliver such an uplift in work experience availability?

Labour’s plan to overhaul careers education includes training a further 1,000 careers advisors. Were it assumed to be the careers advisors responsibility to help make up this work experience deficit they’d need to support, on average, about 2,700 students each to secure a placement for two weeks. Assuming each student only needs one placement during their whole time in education from 13-20 that represents at the very least around 330 per year per careers advisor for just England and Wales.

Assuming this was possible, what proportion of those work experience fortnights would actually be valuable for the students?

Fortunately, the leverage provided by innovative technology has led to the creation of platforms which enable organisations to supply work experience at greater scale and with much lower accessibility criteria. Virtual Work Experience is leading the transformation in this regard. 

The Role of Virtual Work Experience

The Covid pandemic was undoubtedly the catalyst for the accelerated adoption of digital tools, remote working and, by extension, demand from young people for online solutions to gain work experience.

Virtual Work Experience has since cemented its place in the career and education journeys of hundreds of thousands of students and the demand for immersive, experiential learning is only increasing, even as some pandemic behaviours and innovations have faded away. There are a number of features of these online programmes that mean they are here to stay and could be an ideal solution for meeting the government's ambitious targets:

1. Scalability: Virtual work experience programmes can reach a broader audience, allowing more young people to participate without the limitations of physical placements.
2. Flexibility: Virtual placements often provide greater flexibility, enabling young people to manage their time effectively while balancing studies or other commitments. This adaptability can lead to higher participation rates among groups of young people who would otherwise struggle to take part including young carers for example.
3. Diverse Opportunities: Virtual work experience can expose young people to a wider range of industries and roles that may not be available locally. This exposure helps broaden their career horizons and encourages them to consider fields they may not have previously explored.
4. Skill Development: Digital platforms can provide young people with opportunities to develop crucial digital skills, such as data analysis, project management, and online communication. These competencies are increasingly valuable in today’s job market and the soft skills developed as a by-product are essential to the working styles of many organisations.
5. Cost-Effective: Virtual work experience can reduce costs associated with travel and accommodation, making it more accessible to young people from low-income backgrounds.
6. Intention: Doing more online experiences means students can more effectively select in-person opportunities. Consider Cyril who was able to narrow down his interest in law to being a solicitor specifically. This means he can approach applying for future in-person opportunities with a greater understanding of exactly what he's looking for. In this way virtual experiences compliment in-person ones.

These features have become increasingly valuable at a time when social mobility for young people, particularly in the United Kingdom, is at a low level not seen for many decades. The intersection of these two trends: regressing social mobility and increasing digitisation of work and learning, I think explains why Virtual Work Experience is here to stay and needs to be a key part of the government's plan to fulfil its commitment of working for every young person.

It is important to recognise that it is not just students who benefit. Organisations too are beginning to realise the positive impact that virtual careers education programmes can provide.

Virtual Work Experience in Action

Several initiatives have already demonstrated the potential of virtual work experience to complement traditional placements. Springpod's collaborative work with the Met Office provides a fantastic example of the value in having an online programme to complement existing in-person work experience opportunities:

Met Office

The virtual programme allowed students to explore careers at the Met Office and gain a better understanding of the industry of scientific research and weather forecasting. It also had the effect of creating a wonderful route into their in-person placements, allowing employees to engage more deeply with students coming in. Since moving to a blended approach, they can cater for more students with no additional staffing resource and make deeper connections as the initial ‘getting to know you and us’ stage has all been done with one student leaving feedback that:

“I liked the opportunity to attend live webinars and have my questions about working at the Met Office answered and also the ability to connect to Met Office employees through the Ambassador Programme.”

The other significant benefit has been the ability to find talent in any region. Headquartered in Exeter, in-person opportunities at the Met Office would require significant investment from students looking to travel and find accommodation when coming from further afield. Having the online programme open to anyone means that students who would otherwise miss out on learning what a career at the Met Office is like are able to develop those skills, access that knowledge and then make a better informed decision about whether to pursue in-person opportunities. The impact of the programme has been significant and more information can be found about it here.

Careers and Enterprise Company

Springpod's collaboration with the Careers and Enterprise Company provides another example of the potential power of Virtual Work Experience in reaching the ambitious goals of the new government.

The partnership is focused on increasing the accessibility of work experience to students in rural or coastal regions and across all year groups in secondary school: the period of time where it seems many young people miss out on work experience per the research referenced earlier in this article. For the younger year groups the content is light and informative, helping students to just become more familiar with different career options they might not know about or want to understand better. For those students in year 9 and above the experiences are more in depth, associated to specific employers and include some challenging tasks and activities designed to help them test out their new knowledge in realistic settings.

Hundreds of schools and thousands of students have used the collaboration to expand their work-based learning provision.

These examples illustrate the power of technology in broadening access to valuable work experience opportunities and provide a benchmark against which strategies to meet government targets can be based.

Moving Forward: A Collaborative Approach

Springpod has supported over 600,000 students to date and in order to make the government’s pledge a reality, a collaborative approach involving businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and community organisations is essential to roll these types of experiences out to broader audiences.

The pledge to provide every young person with two weeks of work experience reflects a commitment to fostering a skilled and confident workforce ready to tackle the challenges of the future. While the implementation of this initiative presents significant challenges, the potential benefits for young people—and the economy as a whole—are immense.

By embracing innovative solutions such as virtual work experience and fostering collaboration among stakeholders, the Labour government can turn this ambitious pledge into a tangible reality, ensuring that every young person has the opportunity to gain invaluable skills and experience as they embark on their career journeys. With a collective effort, we can create a brighter future for the next generation, one where work experience becomes a fundamental part of their educational journey, equipping them for success in an ever-evolving job market.