The wheel is forever turning and when you’re as old as me, you see things roll around again. This happens regularly in education and we are now back at the position of work experience no longer being a “nice to have” bolted onto the end of Year 10. It is rapidly becoming a central expectation of what a strong careers programme looks like.
This is due to the changes that the Government announced in October 2025. If you’ve not already done so I urge you to read my 3 part blog on the expected effects of this change in policy. You’ll find the first of these here
For school and trust leaders, that shift brings both opportunity and pressure, not least of which is the effect these changes have on the careers leader workload and of course budgets.
The DfE has set out an increasingly ambitious vision for careers provision. At its core is a commitment that every young person should access two weeks’ worth of work experience during their secondary education.
This is not yet fully statutory, but the direction of travel is unmistakable. Updated statutory guidance (May 2025) and the revised Gatsby Benchmarks place a much stronger emphasis on meaningful workplace experiences and sustained employer engagement.
In practical terms, schools are now expected to move towards a model where:
Years 7–9 include around one week of workplace experiences (visits, projects, encounters)
Years 10–11 include at least one week of placements
The system builds towards a broader 10-day / two-week entitlement across secondary education
This is a significant change from the previous, more loosely defined expectation of the original Gatsby Benchmark 6 which read :
By the age of 16, every pupil should have had meaningful experiences of workplaces.
By the age of 18, every pupil should have had at least one further meaningful experience.
Alongside this, research and policy development are focusing on making work experience universal, with expectations that all pupils aged 11–16 engage meaningfully with workplaces.
The case for work experience is not new, but it is becoming more urgent.
High-quality careers guidance, including workplace experience, is linked to:
Better decision-making and clearer progression routes
Improved engagement and attainment
Reduced risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training)
Beyond the data, there’s a more practical reality: young people need exposure to the workplace to build confidence, understand expectations, and develop employability skills that cannot be taught in a classroom alone.
Recent employer activity reinforces this shift. For example, McDonald’s has launched 2,500 paid work placements in what is being described as the UK’s largest in-person work experience programme.
This move is significant for three reasons:
1. Demand for WEX is outstripping supply
67% of young people want work experience, but many believe there aren’t enough opportunities. Whilst many of the ‘big beasts’ such as McDonalds, BaE, Rolls Royce etc offer well thought out and organised WEX programme (see below) many small companies often only respond to young people with a direct connection to the company such as mum or dad working there. These opportunities are more ad hoc and have less defined objectives and outcomes, thus often creating more work for the careers leader and their team.
2. Employers are stepping in at scale
Large organisations are no longer waiting for schools to coordinate everything. They are creating structured pathways directly. a quick internet search for ‘Work experience at xxx’ will often throw up direct links like those below.
This all adds to the task of coordinating and administering the needs of these organised systems.
3. Paid experience is becoming a factor
Over 60% of young people say they cannot afford to take part in unpaid placements.
This raises uncomfortable but important questions for schools:
Will traditional, unpaid, school-organised work experience remain viable at scale without further financial costs in terms of support and administration?
What are the financial effects on Pupil Premium and Free School Meals children’s families. What support will be needed, financial or otherwise?
Can schools with careers leaders who wear the hat nominally, by this I mean SLT members and/or teachers with no extra time to actually do the job, be called careers leaders? Don’t get me started about needing more guidance from DfE on the role of the careers leader!!!
One more thing to bear in mind, what will be the effect of the Government’s recent tender for organisations to run the career hubs (again, if you’ve not read my previous blog you’ll find it here) have on school workloads? Whatever the outcome of these changes, SLT and Governors need to be aware of the change in directions to start planning for them.
We are moving from a single “block placement” model to something broader and more flexible:
Blended experiences (virtual + in-person)
Project-based employer engagement - yes real lessons in the classroom and maybe even in employers premises.
Sector-specific programmes e.g. Hospitality, Engineering, Healthcare & Science
Employer-led placements (increasingly outside school control)
For careers leaders, this means designing a coherent journey, not just organising a week in Year 10.
This is where senior leadership matters.
The updated guidance is explicit: careers should be a whole-school priority, embedded in improvement planning and supported at leadership level.
Work experience cannot be delivered effectively as a bolt-on. It requires:
Timetabling flexibility - This could take many forms; for example all business studies students working on a project with a local bank one afternoon per week for a term or half term, or year 9 Art students working on a project designed by an advertising agency.
Staff buy-in - We need to move from it’s the careers leaders job to all staff having an input and responsibioity
Employer partnerships - these need time and effort to build.
Risk management and safeguarding oversight
Administrative capacity
Without SLT backing, delivery quickly becomes unsustainable.
If schools do not adapt, two things are likely to happen:
Inequality will widen
Students with social capital will secure placements independently. Others will miss out. This is especially important given the Government emphasis on catering to individual student needs.External providers will fill the gap
Large employers and third-party platforms will increasingly shape access, potentially reducing the school’s influence over quality and equity.
The shift towards a work experience entitlement is not just a curriculum issue. It is an operational and strategic challenge.
Some schools are already making changes, they are:
Mapping experiences from Year 7 onwards
Building employer networks beyond “one-off contacts”
Using Careers Hubs and partnerships more effectively
Rethinking what counts as “meaningful” experience
Allocating time and resource realistically
Work experience is moving from the margins to the centre of careers education.
Carry on reading below to find support
1. This is not a one-week task anymore
The move towards a two-week entitlement spread across key stages means continuous planning, not a single annual event.
2. Employer engagement becomes a core function
Sourcing, vetting and maintaining employer relationships will require dedicated time and possibly additional staffing.
3. Administrative burden will increase significantly
Risk assessments, safeguarding checks, tracking participation and evaluating impact all scale up with expanded provision.
4. Equity requires active management
Ensuring all students access high-quality placements (not just those with family connections) adds complexity and time.
5. Careers leaders cannot deliver this alone
Without wider staff involvement and SLT backing, workload will become unmanageable. This is a whole-school responsibility, not a single-role function.
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