Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help enable opportunities for pupils to undertake work experience with local employers in-between their studies.

Secondary schools and colleges are expected to adopt the government’s careers framework, the Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance, to develop and improve their careers programmes. The benchmarks describe eight aspects of high-quality careers guidance based on international evidence. A link to the guidance can be found here: https://www.gatsby.org.uk/education/focus-areas/good-career-guidance.

Gatsby Benchmark 6 sets out that every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities and expand their networks. The criteria for meeting the benchmark are that by the age of 16, every pupil should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have. By the age of 18, every pupil should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have. The proportion of schools and colleges fully achieving Gatsby Benchmark 6 has increased from 37% in 2017/18 to 64% in 2022/23.

The department is funding The Careers & Enterprise Company to support schools and colleges, through their network of local Careers Hubs, to deliver experiences of workplaces. Funding for 2023/24 will deliver three distinct strands of activity:

1. High-quality work experience for up to 15,000 young people with the greatest economic disadvantage.
2. Experiences with 20 employers from key growth sectors for up to 5,000 young people with a guarantee of a high-quality mock interview.
3. Virtual experiences for year 7-9 pupils in up to 600 institutions in coastal and rural areas.

The department will ensure that all of the learning and good practice from this work is disseminated widely and will inform future policy on work experience.