Workplace Visits
What is a Workplace Visit?
Workplace Visits give young people the opportunity to explore a range of roles across various departments within a single workplace or business setting and can help future generations imagine their future careers. Essentially, this is an extension of the ‘traditional’ workplace experience model which considers the breadth of the organisation in order to provide context to different roles.
These are a chance for businesses to open their doors to young people, helping to build a wider understanding of the world of work, and can also be used to upskill teachers and educational professionals by showcasing the breadth of careers across the organisation.
How to Scale Workplace Visits
Workplace visits can be used for large groups to individual students depending on the employer. Typical experiences would be expected to last no more than a day for groups and up to a week for individual students and may be spread over a number of separate visits where possible.
Benefits of Workplace Visits for Young People
- Exposure to a wide variety of roles within an organisation.
- See how departments and teams work together.
- See the bigger picture and understand more about how a business functions.
Benefits of Workplace Visits for Schools
- Helps students to develop essential skills for the workplace.
- Create greater relationships with local businesses to provide further opportunities for school talks, careers fairs, etc.
- Impact on achievement by providing students with an essential link with what they are learning and why if arranged in conjunction with subject leads.
- Set pupils on a previously untapped pathway.
- Can engage large groups of students at the same time.
Benefits of Workplace Visits for Hosts
- Collaboration between different departments and colleagues.
- Share your experiences with young people within your local area.
- Networking opportunities for staff between participating departments.
- Develop staff communication and ambassadorial skills.
Potential Innovations of the Workplace Visits Model
The Workplace Visit model can be executed in two ways depending on the organisation’s operations:
- Department-based: where students visit a range of departments or functions within a single employer workplace, e.g. a visit to a care home with time spent in the customer service reception, catering, facilities & maintenance, nursing and administration departments
- Product-based: where students follow the journey of a product from design to manufacture to marketing to delivery and encounter the range of departments, roles and work environments involved.
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: