Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) number and (b) variety of available work experience places for under 18s in the latest period for which data is available.

Post-16 providers must record work placement activities as part of planned hours for each student for funding purposes and this data is not publicly available. Small scale sample audit checks are undertaken by the department.

Schools and colleges self-report institution level data on the proportion of students undertaking work experience by academic year. Data captured through the Compass+ online self-assessment tool shows that the majority of students in 74% schools and colleges had an experience of the workplace in the 2024/25 academic year.

The department is funding the Careers & Enterprise Company to deliver the first phase of activity to prepare schools and employers to deliver the government’s commitment to ensure every pupil has access to two weeks’ worth of work experience during their secondary education.