Struggling to know where to start when building your own virtual work experience programme? We've simplified the process into five easy simple steps for you.
So, you’re ready to reinvent your approach to work experience by going virtual. Great decision - but you still need to decide on the best approach to creating the programme. Sound like a familiar predicament? Building a virtual work experience programme doesn’t have to be a daunting task.
We’ve shortened the process into five simple steps to show you how to create a tailored virtual work experience programme for your brand. We’ve also put together a handy Virtual Work Experience Toolkit, full of ideas and examples, to help you along your journey to creating a custom programme that students engage with and enjoy!
To start, you need to develop clear objectives for your programme - are you focusing on building brand awareness, promoting your apprenticeships or something else? It’s fine to have more than one, provided they are SMART.
If you use Springpod, our expert content team can help you build the programme - bringing to life your ideas, maximising your return on investment and helping you to achieve your objectives.
A fully bespoke programme can generally take around 12 weeks to plan, build and sign off, so it’s important to bear this in mind when you consider your own timeframes and ensure you can meet the programme deadlines to avoid delays.
Top tip: Unlike typical in-person work experience, a virtual one allows you to cover more than one role or department within a single programme; so you can showcase more of your business and the sector in which it operates.
Common elements you can include are:
It’s now time to bring your experience to life - the content team will begin storyboarding your programme detailing the elements you’ve chosen, the flow and what the experience looks like.
The team can collaborate with you to come up with creative ways to showcase your company, ensuring that the programme is interactive and engaging for students. Content ideas and examples can be found in our downloadable toolkit - and should give you an idea of some of the options we offer.
It’s good practice to feature different roles (including those at a senior level) and diverse speakers in your live webinars, to give a more comprehensive view of your organisation. The team will also host a webinar workshop with your speakers to help get them acquainted with the platform, its features and what to expect on the day. These steps ensure the speakers feel confident and the webinar runs smoothly.
Top tip: Recent graduates and apprentices work well as speakers. Students are more likely to engage with and relate to those just starting their careers.
It’s time to open applications to students! We’ll share your programme on social media and through our student database of over 250,000 students to maximise reach. Don’t forget to market the programme through your own channels too!
Behind the scenes, the content team is busy writing and building the programme for you and will share the content along the way for approval and amendments.
Remember: Springpod can target your programme at specific groups of young people, using specific data points such as gender, location and more.
We’re almost there. The team will share your completed programme for feedback and provide an opportunity to make minor amendments.
During this time, applications will also close. You will then receive a shortlist of candidates that meet your criteria. The team will let successful participants know they have secured a place, before enrolling them onto the programme ready for your launch date.
Well done - it’s time to launch! During the programme, the Springpod support team are on hand to help manage your live talks and answer any queries or issues you may have. In fact, we take the stress out of managing work experience.
Now it’s your turn. By following our step-by-step instructions, you can create your own bespoke virtual work experience programme - and the team at Springpod is on hand when you need a little help.
To see some examples of the content we can create, sample some of the work that students have previously completed, and get access to smart templates for planning your programme, download our Virtual Work Experience Toolkit today.