Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of pupils who completed two weeks of work experience in each of the last three years.

The department does not hold published national data on the number of pupils who completed two weeks of work experience in the last three years. Schools currently report on whether pupils have had an experience of a workplace rather than the duration of that experience.

According to school and college performance data captured through the Compass+ online self-assessment tool, more students are experiencing workplaces than in previous years. Overall performance on Gatsby Benchmark 6 (experiences of workplaces) in the 2024/25 academic year improved by 2% points from 2023/24 to 74% on average for all schools and colleges.

The department is funding the Careers and 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.