Employer engagement

This toolkit is intended to be simple to use, helping Careers Leaders and others support and develop youth social action. the resource aims to enable more of their young people to be active citizens in their school or college and wider communities.

These resources have been created by curriculum subject experts from Academies Enterprise Trust through collaboration with EKFB to engage and support students in learning by placing teaching points in the context of the world of work.

This paper summarises the research on three forms of work related learning: work experience placements, job shadowing and workplace visits, showcasing the effectiveness of these activities and highlighting examples of best practice.

The Toolkit is for secondary schools, Academies and other education establishments - a guide for Head Teachers, Careers Leads and operations staff. It covers setting up and effectively managing and supervising placements or work experiences and has a number of standalone useful checklists and forms.

Prepare for a student’s work experience placement with these easily adaptable templates and example paperwork – developed by the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

The West of England Careers Hub recently commissioned staff from Three Ways School to work with seven SEND schools to support and train the careers leaders in developing a local network of employers for work experience. As part of this, a range of editable resources were produced.

Kennedys virtual work experience will allow students to take the first step of their legal career with a global law firm that does things differently. The programme gives students the opportunity to complete legal work experience virtually, completing real life tasks created by Kennedys trainees and apprentices. 

The LEAN has created a series of resources to help schools and colleges provide their students with virtual experiences of the workplace. The first two virtual work experience packages are available to download and feature two key sectors, Digital and Technology and Construction.

Barclays virtual work experience gives students the opportunity to find out what it is like to work in financial services and the range of job roles and core transferable skills which are used within a bank. LifeSkills also has a range of virtual work experience resources for students to use within a classroom environment to help upskill them for jobs across any industry.

Upskill Me is a multipurpose tool enabling students to build a digital record of their achievements (both academic and extracurricular), learn about and develop in-demand soft skills, and find live opportunities to help them become better prepared for the world after school. Each students’ portfolio can be downloaded or shared into a job or UCAS application via a sharable link.

This resource is designed to support Careers Leaders and other staff involved in the transition process from Key Stage 2 into Key Stage 3, exploring opportunities to embed careers activities and parental engagement across the full range of transition opportunities.

It takes you through the three phases:

1. Decision making (Y4,5,6) while children and parents /carers are still considering their options
2. Decision made (Y6) once the children have been allocated their secondary school
3. Started (Y7) once the children have started their secondary school.

Top Tips from AET on creating an online work experience programme.