Employer Safaris
What is an Employer Safari?
An Employer Safari gives young people the opportunity to meet role models across a variety of organisations and business settings and can help future generations imagine their future careers.
Employer Safaris give students the opportunity to access different businesses that are working in close proximity or within a shared space (such as a construction zone, a science park or business centre) by allowing students to move between businesses in rotation or by selection in accordance with their career preferences and aspirations.
Employer Safaris are particularly useful for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) with limited space to accommodate large groups of young people and can provide multiple experiences through a range of employers.
How to Scale Employer Safaris
Employer Safaris are more effective for medium to large groups of students, which can be divided between a number of employers. Typical experiences would be expected to last no more than a day.
Benefits of Employer Safaris for Young People
- Exposure to a wide variety of sectors, businesses and roles.
- Enables direct comparison between different environments and roles.
- May allow for tailored experiences with preferred employers.
Benefits of Employer Safaris for Schools
- Get students thinking about career preferences.
- Create greater relationships with local businesses to provide further opportunities for school talks, careers fairs, etc.
- Can engage large groups of students at the same time.
- Encounters can be tied into curriculum for certain STEM and Humanities subjects.
Benefits of Employer Safaris for Hosts
- Share your experiences with young people within your local area.
- Networking opportunities for staff between participating businesses.
- Develop staff communication and ambassadorial skills.
- Students choose their encounters with employers, resulting in more meaningful exchanges.
Potential Innovations of the Employer Safari Model
The Employer Safari model can be blended with the Workplace Visit model where the employer environment allows, e.g. in coastal locations students can consider various aspects of fishing (weather station, lifeboat station, quayside, fish traders/shops, restaurants). Each of these is a different workplace within a location, but all are closely connected.
Get Involved
If you are an employer, we would like to hear from you and find out what challenges you face in offering work experience opportunities for young people, and any ideas you have for offering new experiences of your workplace.
Complete Our Questionnaire on Barriers to Offering Experiences of Your Workplace
If you don't want to complete our questionnaire, you can sign up to find out more and/or attend our 'Virtual Experience of the Workplace Employer Briefing' (15 November 2023 at 4pm) below.
*If you have completed the questionnaire there is no need to sign up as we will be in touch.
If you are a school and would like to get involved: