The Youth Guarantee: how will an entitlement to two weeks’ work experience for young people be achieved?

In November 2024, the UK government published a white paper Get Britain Working which includes its vision for a Youth Guarantee – a range of entitlements and provisions for young people to boost their career paths and long-term employability. The strands of this guarantee include, among other things, an ambitious entitlement to two weeks’ work experience (50 hours) for all school and college students in England. However, according to the Youth Voice Census, only 36% of young people in secondary schools have access to work experience opportunities, and only 38% of those undertook work experience in jobs they were interested in.

More capacity means increased workload for schools and colleges

The response to the idea of an entitlement to 50 hours’ work experience, from some of the schools that EDT engages with, has been unsurprisingly mixed. Our analysis suggests that, to achieve this objective across the board, schools and colleges will need to at least double the amount of work experience opportunities they currently offer. This will significantly increase their workload. The Career and Enterprise Company (CEC) recently presented the Equalex model, which could be used to achieve the entitlement. But if schools are to adhere to this model, most of the capacity building will need to be done through developing a work experience offer for years 7–9. There would also need to be a work experience management platform for those students as they progress through school – however, about three quarters of the schools we work with do not have such a work experience offer for those year groups, so a new platform would need to be built.

Alongside doubling the work experience offer and increasing the associated workload within schools and colleges, the current level of employer participation in this area would also need to be doubled. How could this be achieved? And how can we avoid this becoming a siloed initiative that adds to employer confusion? The government’s goals are indeed challenging, so schools and employers need to be not just supported but incentivised too.

Measurement and assessment: a role for Careers Hubs?

For such a policy to work as a universal entitlement, schools would need to be robustly measured on how well they meet their 50-hours’ work experience target. A mechanism for this could be the Gatsby Benchmark goal concerning good career guidance in schools. Schools currently self-assess their status against each Gatsby benchmark (using the Compass tool) – but perhaps measurement of this new entitlement should be undertaken externally? And if so, who would do it?

We suggest that Careers Hubs (like the one we operate in West London on behalf of the Careers and Enterprise Company and the Greater London Authority) would be ideal for this role. Careers Hubs support young people with the guidance, skills and work experience they need to make informed career choices; they coordinate the engagement of employers and apprenticeships providers across a local area to avoid duplication and ensure alignment; and they have robust and productive relationships with schools and colleges. Careers Hubs could also quality assure and broker opportunities (ensuring collaboration between institutions), and locally coordinate opportunities that are available nationally.

Good practice exists but funding is needed

There is evidence of good practice for many, if not all, of the proposed solutions to ramp up work experience for young people. In particular, the feedback we receive from employers, school and colleges suggests that the most impactful work experience provision incorporates pre-placement preparation and post-placement reflection with students. Funding an ambitious target like 50 hours’ work experience for all students in England will inevitably be challenging – but only additional funding can ensure this happens at scale. The creation of a national level database or service to manage universally available work experience opportunities could be one way of using any new funding – although effective local coordination would still be necessary.

Funding needs to reflect where the needs are: For employers, this means focusing on building capacity within the SMEs who comprise 99% of the nation’s employers; for schools, funding would be required to provide additional support to students with greater needs, such as enhancing work experience activities to support students at risk of being NEET (not in education, employment or training); and if the provision of work experience is to be expanded to include younger students, employers will also need support on tailoring their approaches and activities to suit younger cohorts.

On the other hand, there are options to build capacity that may not require much additional funding. Perhaps a kitemark for employers who have effectively engaged with work experience programmes would encourage take-up? If every procuring local authority included and prioritised the take-up of work experience in their lists of social value options that bidding organisations must choose from, how much would that move the dial? And perhaps some standardisation of the more universal work experience processes could save local duplication of effort – for example, a standard proforma for risk assessments?

The 50-hour work experience guarantee: a worthwhile goal

A range of research-backed evidence shows that good quality work experience improves employment outcomes for young people. We know this from the feedback we get from schools and students, and the data shows it too: the CEC’s research paper, Work Experience, Job Shadowing and Workplace Visits: What Works, shows that the impact of undertaking work experience includes improved educational outcomes, along with increased careers readiness and outcomes. No wonder the government is committed to ensuring that every child and young person should have a minimum of 50 hours’ high-quality work experience. Now we must work together to ensure that this commitment is realised.