What is Work Experience?

Work experience describes the situation where a student spends a short period of time, normally one or two weeks, with an organisation, during which they experience what it is like to work for the organisation.

The main objectives of work experience placements are:

• for the student to gain an insight into the world of work;

• for the student to gain an insight into the industry;

• for the student to gain additional skills; and

• to help the student make decisions about their future.

The benefits of work experience for the organisation

The main purpose of work experience placements is to further the student's personal development. The student is likely to gain more from the experience

than will be gained by the organisation. That said work experience placements can benefit the organisation that hosts the student by:

• helping to improve the organisation's image in the community;

• developing junior employees' management skills where they supervise the student;

• identifying talent at an early stage; and

• where appropriate and taking into account the student's skills and the work plan for the student's placement, having an additional member of the team to carry out meaningful tasks.

Therefore it is important to take work experience placements seriously and dedicate a sufficient amount of time to making them work.

Recruiting the student

Local education authorities and school governing bodies are normally responsible for work experience placements, although the student, the student's school or college or a work experience organiser may be involved in arranging the placement.

The organisation may have an agreement in place with the local authority or school in relation to the number of work experience placements it will offer or the process it will follow to place students.

You should check the organisation's policy and procedures on work experience, which may set out the process you should follow to place work experience students.

Even though an interview is unlikely to be necessary for placing work experience students, conducting an interview with a student prior to their starting the placement will assist the student to understand how interviews are structured and give them experience for future interviews.

This might be the student's first experience of work, so having some experience of a real recruitment process is likely to help them with future job applications.

Dos and don'ts

• Do ask questions about the student's education and hobbies.

• Do ask questions about the student's objectives for the work placement.

• Do ask the student questions about their suitability for the role.

• Do encourage the student to ask you questions.

• Don't ask questions about or base your decision on whether or not to offer a placement to an individual, on any "protected characteristics" (see below).

• Don't ask health-related questions, unless they come within one of the specific exemptions (see below).

  
  

The "protected characteristics" are sex, gender reassignment, married or civil partner status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age and disability, and are wholly irrelevant to the placement.

Asking any questions related to these characteristics, or basing a decision on them, could expose the organisation to a discrimination claim.

You should not ask prospective work experience students health-related questions during the recruitment process. Health-related questions during the recruitment process should be restricted to one of a number of specified circumstances, including:

• to establish whether or not the student will be able to undergo an assessment as part of the recruitment process (for example an interview), and whether or not the organisation will need to make reasonable adjustments to it; and

• to ascertain if the student can carry out functions essential to the placement, after taking into account reasonable adjustments (this will apply only in very limited situations, for example if the student may be required to undertake lifting, which, in any event, will be subject to health and safety requirements that apply to the employment of individuals below the age of 18.

Pay

 Employers are not required to pay work experience students. Work experience placements that last for less than one year and are part of a UK-based higher-education or further-education course are exempt from the national minimum wage rules.

Students of compulsory school age carrying out work placements are also exempt from the national minimum wage (in England and Wales, young people can leave school on the last Friday of June of the school year in which they are 16 (although a duty to participate in education or training applies in England.)

However, some organisations reimburse work experience students' expenses, for example travel and lunch expenses, as a matter of good practice.

Furthermore, organisations that offer work experience placements during the school holidays could choose to pay students during their placement to encourage those from less privileged backgrounds to take on a placement where they might otherwise seek paid work, and to further the reputation of the organisation.

Be advised

 Placements that fall outside these exceptions (often called internships) will be subject to payment of the national minimum wage, under the intern is there simply to observe.