Work experience can cut NEET by 80% but disadvantaged teens are missing out

Work experience report findings

Education and Employers has found that young people who experience high levels of employer engagement before the age of 16 have 80 per cent lower odds of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training). This is in comparison to those who had the least experience.

They also have much better odds of having a clear post-GCSE plan, getting onto their chosen courses, and feeling their experience between aged 16-18 was useful.

Work Experience: Past, Present and Future, is the most detailed analysis of global research on the impact of employer engagement. Funded by the DHL UK Foundation, it draws on findings from original surveys of:

• Young adults aged 19 to 26
• Teachers
• Small employers
• 47 international OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) studies

Work experience and well-connected families

The report also found that access to high-quality work experience placements are often limited to those with well-connected families. For 81 per cent of young people, work placements are arranged by them or their families. 

78 per cent of school staff said family connections are the main reason some young people benefit more than others. These inequalities are reinforced by a combination of geographic isolation, economic disadvantage, travel costs, limited employer capacity to engage, and insufficient resources in schools.

Government’s new work experience policy

The study also examines careers provision for young people and raises concerns about the government-run National Careers Service.

The government recently announced a new policy requiring all students under 16 to complete 10 days of workplace experience. However, the study found that teachers were concerned about its deliverability. 

The report includes an analysis of government departments and discovered only 22 per cent of government departments mention work experience on their own websites. 

The Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Cabinet Office do not appear to offer work experience placements to under-16s.

Currently:

• only 58 per cent of KS4 pupils complete any work experience
• 94 per cent of teachers said job shadowing would be difficult or very difficult to organise
• 81 per cent of teachers said workplace visits are difficult or very difficult to arrange
• employers are willing to engage, but state limited resources, bureaucracy and competing demands as significant barriers
• schools face a shortage of high-quality placements, competition from other schools, rising travel costs and difficulties releasing staff

The report argues that without proper infrastructure and support, the government’s guarantee of 10 days’ work experience risks becoming a tick-box exercise which will fail to deliver what our young people need and deserve.

The Rt Hon. Alan Milburn in his review, Young People and Work, said that having nearly one million young people being NEET was a crisis and risked a ‘lost generation’. 

Work experience can be delivered differently

The new evidence from Education and Employers proves work experience before the age of 16 plays a key role in reducing the risk of young people becoming NEET and details a number of options on how this might be delivered going forward.

Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers, said:

“The Government’s ambition is absolutely right. But the evidence in this report and the surveys of young people, schools and employers suggest there is a real risk that without a proper infrastructure and funding this policy will simply advantage the advantaged, widening the social mobility gap further. If most work experience placements continue to be found mainly through family connections, the best opportunities will inevitably go to the most well-connected young people. Good work experience should not depend on who your parents know or where you happen to live.

“For more than 60 years, successive governments have tried to reinvent work experience, yet many of the same barriers remain.

“This report shows just how powerful meaningful employer engagement can be in reducing the risk of young people becoming NEET. Government needs to lead this from the top. If Government is serious about tackling the country’s NEET crisis, it must bring together the leaders of education and employer organisations to create a structured system that gives every young person access to high-quality experiences of the world of work, regardless of their background.”

Responding to the report research

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: 

“School leaders recognise the value of high-quality work experience, alongside careers advice, in helping young people to plan for their future.

“This important research comes as the latest statutory guidance increases expectations on schools further, especially on delivering a universal two‑week work experience offer – but without the additional investment or employer capacity needed to make this deliverable in practice.

“Without significant new government funding and action to secure the buy-in of businesses, as this report shows, these worthy ambitions are unlikely to be deliverable.”