Springpod share their tips and tricks on how you can ensure you're hitting Gatsby Benchmarks 5 & 6 with your virtual work experience programme. 

The Gatsby Benchmarks form part of a framework that schools and colleges use to develop a good careers programme. While this may not seem important to employers, it’s something to consider when creating your work experience programme, as schools and colleges will favour those programmes that are able to achieve benchmarks 5 & 6.

What are Gatsby Benchmarks 5 & 6?

Gatsby Benchmark 5 is all about providing meaningful encounters with employers.

Gatsby Benchmark 6 is providing students with experiences of the workplace.

How can I achieve Gatsby Benchmark 5 through virtual work experience?

• Create live talks with employer representatives where students can ask questions and interact with those in the positions they hope to one day be in.
  
  
• It’s a good idea to have a variety of roles available to interact with students during the work experience to enable them a full understanding of the business - think about who you have available, from your senior team through to apprentices.
  
  
• Try to incorporate engaging activities and content into your programmes to keep students interested. If you need some ideas, take a look at our Virtual Work Experience Toolkit at the end of this post.

How can I achieve Gatsby Benchmark 6 through virtual work experience?

• The main thing to remember about benchmark 6 is that you need to provide two-way interaction between the students and employers. The easiest way to do this is to get the students to submit an activity or project that you, the employer, can then give feedback on - whether it’s tips on how to improve or general comments on their efforts.
  
  
• If you’re using webinars, as mentioned for Benchmark 5, this is another way you could provide two-way interaction with employers, provided students have access to a chat function or similar to submit questions.
  
  
• Springpod provides employers with an insights report at the end of the programme. This includes student feedback on what worked well and what didn’t, student testimonials and demographic data. Employers can use this report to improve their programme in the future and gauge what students' next steps are - whether this is an apprenticeship, university or something else.

Now that you know how to ensure your virtual work experience meets Gatsby Benchmarks 5 & 6, it’s time to create your programme.

You can download our free Employer’s Guide to Virtual Work Experience below to help.

Download our free Employers Guide to Virtual Work Experience to find out more.