UK
Work experience placements must be reinvented, former education secretaries sayEleanor Busby,
PA Education Correspondent
Mon, 4 March 2024
The traditional model of a fixed work experience placement for teenagers in the summer term needs to be reinvented, two former education secretaries have said.
Baroness Morgan of Cotes and Lord Blunkett, who were education secretaries in previous Conservative and Labour administrations, have called for work experience to not only be a “one-off event”.
Businesses should have an “ongoing” and “meaningful” relationship with secondary schools and colleges and they should move away from a “rigid view of two weeks of work experience”, the peers have said.
Conservative peer Lady Morgan, who served as education secretary for two years when David Cameron was Prime Minister, is now chair of The Careers and Enterprise Company.
Labour peer Lord Blunkett, who served as education secretary under Tony Blair, led Labour’s council of skills advisers and published a series of recommendations for the party in October 2022.
The pair, who will both give speeches at an event in the House of Lords on Tuesday to mark National Careers Week, have called on policymakers and sector leaders to look again at work experience.
The former education secretaries said: “Memories of bad work experience persist. The annual teenage procession of two weeks of tea-making at a local firm with little or no benefit to either party still colours our national discourse.
“People often remark that the only thing they learned from the process was what job they didn’t want. Less return on investment, more dead weight cost.”
They added: “Modern work experience has more purpose, is focused on those who face most barriers and helps young people build skills that they struggle to master in school. It stretches over a young person’s time in education, rather than solely a one-off event.”
Their comments come after a report about the careers landscape in England has been published by The Careers and Enterprise Company.
Based on the evidence in the report, Lady Morgan and Lord Blunkett said: “Young people – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – report they want more [work experience].
“They want to learn and practice skills like speaking and listening and want a greater focus on the practicalities of applications for jobs.
“For businesses, it’s about moving away from a rigid view of two weeks of work experience, which in itself has disappeared in too many secondary schools.
“Instead, there needs to be an ongoing, meaningful relationship with schools and colleges, capturing imaginations as soon as young people enter secondary school. This may not mean more time, but it will mean more impact.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “The call for a reinvention of work experience is laudable and it would certainly be a good thing to have more and better work experience opportunities. However, there are myriad practicalities involved.
“It can often be difficult to secure work experience placements at all, schools and colleges are already on their knees with the various expectations placed upon them, and money and resources are extremely tight because of more than a decade of government underfunding.
“A wholesale review of the curriculum is required to ensure that we are prioritising the right things and doing so in a way that is balanced and deliverable.”
A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “As the Careers and Enterprise Company found in their recent report, 96% of young people in secondary education had at least one employer encounter last year and the number of schools and colleges in England providing experiences of the workplace increased across the board.
“We know how vital work experience is to young people’s development, which is why we are funding CEC to support schools and colleges to provide high-quality experiences of workplaces through their Network of Careers Hubs and Enterprise Advisers and invested around £100 million to support delivery of high-quality careers advice and guidance to people of all ages.”
Mon, 4 March 2024
The traditional model of a fixed work experience placement for teenagers in the summer term needs to be reinvented, two former education secretaries have said.
Baroness Morgan of Cotes and Lord Blunkett, who were education secretaries in previous Conservative and Labour administrations, have called for work experience to not only be a “one-off event”.
Businesses should have an “ongoing” and “meaningful” relationship with secondary schools and colleges and they should move away from a “rigid view of two weeks of work experience”, the peers have said.
Conservative peer Lady Morgan, who served as education secretary for two years when David Cameron was Prime Minister, is now chair of The Careers and Enterprise Company.
Labour peer Lord Blunkett, who served as education secretary under Tony Blair, led Labour’s council of skills advisers and published a series of recommendations for the party in October 2022.
The pair, who will both give speeches at an event in the House of Lords on Tuesday to mark National Careers Week, have called on policymakers and sector leaders to look again at work experience.
The former education secretaries said: “Memories of bad work experience persist. The annual teenage procession of two weeks of tea-making at a local firm with little or no benefit to either party still colours our national discourse.
“People often remark that the only thing they learned from the process was what job they didn’t want. Less return on investment, more dead weight cost.”
They added: “Modern work experience has more purpose, is focused on those who face most barriers and helps young people build skills that they struggle to master in school. It stretches over a young person’s time in education, rather than solely a one-off event.”
Their comments come after a report about the careers landscape in England has been published by The Careers and Enterprise Company.
Based on the evidence in the report, Lady Morgan and Lord Blunkett said: “Young people – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – report they want more [work experience].
“They want to learn and practice skills like speaking and listening and want a greater focus on the practicalities of applications for jobs.
“For businesses, it’s about moving away from a rigid view of two weeks of work experience, which in itself has disappeared in too many secondary schools.
“Instead, there needs to be an ongoing, meaningful relationship with schools and colleges, capturing imaginations as soon as young people enter secondary school. This may not mean more time, but it will mean more impact.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “The call for a reinvention of work experience is laudable and it would certainly be a good thing to have more and better work experience opportunities. However, there are myriad practicalities involved.
“It can often be difficult to secure work experience placements at all, schools and colleges are already on their knees with the various expectations placed upon them, and money and resources are extremely tight because of more than a decade of government underfunding.
“A wholesale review of the curriculum is required to ensure that we are prioritising the right things and doing so in a way that is balanced and deliverable.”
A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “As the Careers and Enterprise Company found in their recent report, 96% of young people in secondary education had at least one employer encounter last year and the number of schools and colleges in England providing experiences of the workplace increased across the board.
“We know how vital work experience is to young people’s development, which is why we are funding CEC to support schools and colleges to provide high-quality experiences of workplaces through their Network of Careers Hubs and Enterprise Advisers and invested around £100 million to support delivery of high-quality careers advice and guidance to people of all ages.”
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