How can we make sure that work experience is ‘meaningful’ when the struggle is real?

Of all the Gatsby Benchmarks in all the world, GB6 is arguably the one that gets careers leads on their marks ready for a marathon (GB4 has just whispered “Hold my beer…” but we’ll ignore that for this particular blog post). Ensuring that 100+ young people with varying degrees of existing social capital secure ‘meaningful’ placements is no mean feat, especially in a sector notorious for struggles with funding and capacity.

Despite these limitations it is heartening to see so many dedicated professionals in the ‘Career Leaders UK’ Facebook group discussing their plans to reinstate WEX post-pandemic, sharing ideas and generally being the rock stars that they are in order to provide their young people with the opportunity to ‘see what they can be’.

This is obviously amazing, and in an ideal world we can agree that any experience of the world of work is a plus. But research on the impact of such placements points towards the fact that not all WEX is created equal when factors such as social capital are considered, and that indeed WEX done wrong could even have a negative impact on a young person’s prospects.

Them coming to us vs us going to them

Multiple researchers have very kindly explored how employers coming into school impacts career outcomes vs young people going out on work experience, and most agree that one currently outweighs the other. Here’s a brief summary:

1. Mann and Kashefpakdel’s (2017) study into young adults’ experiences of the employer engagement they received during their time at school was motivated by the 2004 devolved governments’ introduction of new requirements in state schools to provide pupils aged 14-16 with a minimal exposure to work-related learning as part of their learning experience. They aimed to gauge the extent to which the young people (now adults) from this era found that such engagements had enhanced their school to work transitions in the following areas: getting a job after education; deciding on a career; and getting into higher education. It turns out that the majority of participants felt that work experience had the least positive impact on the areas covered despite involving the most work and effort to organise and carry out. In contrast, they felt that employer talks in school were the most useful type of encounter.
2. Chris Percy has provided written evidence to parliament in support of a proposal to introduce a statutory requirement for every school pupil to receive at least three employer talks a year. His research specifies that if a pupil receives ten career talks across their time at school, this translates into an 8% wage gain on average, with a higher increase if the pupil receives four career talks a year. He suggests that the reasoning behind such a statistic is that there is a “need to contrast multiple roles to make sense of the vast range of options available”, “a need to hear about careers from different people at different times before it clicks” and “a need for multiple experiences to overcome prior, limited, or stereotyped views”
3. Moote and Archer (2018) report that students complained that a system of self-sourcing led to securing placements with little connection to their aspirations, with students from socially advantaged backgrounds reporting higher satisfaction due to an ability to draw upon wider family networks.
4. Finally, I can’t ignore Steven Jones’ (2013) study of the inclusion of WEX in UCAS personal statements and the effect on admissions. In a (very over-simplified, sorry!) nutshell, it illustrated that applicants from independent schools are more likely to discuss high prestige work experience, and are able to articulate the skills and attributes they have developed. In contrast, those from state schools and further education colleges are not as successful at showcasing skills and attributes developed through work experience, discuss lower prestige placements and use language that could be described as ‘apologetic’ when talking about their work experience.

So what the heck are we expected to do with this?!

I get you! Having worked as a careers lead in a secondary school and now as an employability skills award manager in HE, I know very well that the two sectors are worlds apart in terms of funding, time and wider buy-in. In the short-term, such limitations mean that placement self-sourcing will probably remain a common method and certain sectors will remain difficult to access for the majority. For now though, I propose the following:

• If you’re not already, make yourself a loveable pest on LinkedIn. Just today I saw a wonderful careers lead from a large secondary school shouting out to their contacts, asking for support with WEX and laying out exactly why they should help. Start schmoozing and think about how such collaboration will benefit businesses. I always found that a public thank you on SM and a hand-written thank you card went a long way. LinkedIn is also great for tracking down alumni and they will often feel flattered to be invited back/to be asked to help out with WEX.
• Speak to your local university careers service! My mission is to get secondary and HE careers professionals working together more and the employer engagement guys in universities will be full of bright ideas to share.
• Reach out to your local Chambers of Commerce. Membership may be too expensive but in my experience they are delighted to hear that schools are investing in careers education and they can link you up with some of their members.

In summary, it’s not a quick fix but there is some great practice out there. I’ll finish with a quote by Chris Percy and Elnaz Kashefpakdel from their chapter in ‘Career Guidance for Emancipation: Reclaiming Justice for the Multitude’:

“Schools have the potential to design interventions that compensate for social disadvantage, but without a deliberate approach, employer contact is more likely to exacerbate inequality”.

I’d love to hear your views and experiences on this topic!

References:

• Facebook ‘Careers Leaders UK’ group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/248530409320485
• Mann, A and Kashefpakdel, E, The views of young Britons (aged 19-24) on their teenage experiences of school-mediated employer engagement, 2014, Understanding Employer Engagement in Education: Theories and Evidence, Chapter 9, p.142
• Moote, J and Archer, L, Failing to Deliver? Exploring the current status of career education provision in England, 2017
• Written evidence submitted by Chris Percy: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/107555/default/
• Jones, S, Ensure that you stand out from the crowd: A corpus-based analysis of personal statements according to applicants’ school types, 2013
• Percy, C & Kashefpakdel, E, Social Advantage, Access to Employers and the Role of Schools in Modern British Education, Chapter 10 in Career Guidance for Emancipation: Reclaiming Justice for the Multitude, Routledge 2019