Former education secretaries, Baroness Morgan of Cotes and Lord Blunkett, have said that the traditional model of a fixed work experience placement for teenagers in the summer term needs to be reinvented.
They believe work experience should not just be a "one-off event". Instead, businesses should have an "ongoing" and "meaningful" relationship with secondary schools and colleges, moving away from a "rigid view of two weeks of work experience".
Lady Morgan, who was education secretary under David Cameron, is now chair of The Careers and Enterprise Company. Lord Blunkett, who served as education secretary under Tony Blair, led Labour's council of skills advisers and published recommendations for the party in October 2022.
Both will speak at an event in the House of Lords on Tuesday to mark National Careers Week, urging policymakers and sector leaders to rethink work experience. They 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. 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."
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Their comments come after a report about the careers landscape in England has been published by The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC). 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, the boss of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), shared his thoughts: "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."
He also said that finding work experience can be tough, schools and colleges are struggling with lots of demands, and they don't have much money or resources because the government hasn't given enough funding for over ten years. "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 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."
They added that work experience is important for young people's growth, which is why they're giving money to the CEC to help schools and colleges offer great workplace experiences through Careers Hubs and Enterprise Advisers. They've also invested £100 million into making sure people of all ages get expert advice and guidance.
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