Gatsby Benchmark 6: Experiences of workplaces

Every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks

The East Sussex Careers Hub runs two programmes to facilitate students' immersion in the workplace: Open Doors and Work Experience.

Open Doors

Open Doors is an innovative initiative that gives secondary students aged 11 to 19 the opportunity to visit East Sussex businesses. Small groups of students come to the business for a short session to meet staff, tour the company, talk about careers pathways and perhaps take part in an activity. Feedback by students shows that these visits have a strong impact on learners' behaviour and attainment. We have already seen students decide on career paths, take steps to work harder in school, and find work experience placements. For more information, contact Kim Bulgin.

Watch this video for an overview of the Open Doors programme.

Are you an employer and would like to get involved? Find out how you can set up your own Open Doors experience by hearing from employers themselves:

Work Experience

The Work Experience Team work with schools and employers to set up work experience placements for year 10 students aged 14 to 15. Work experience can take place at any time of year and usually lasts a week, although other timings are possible. For more information consult the work experience pages.

The Careers Partners section of Compass Plus will give you access to other providers of work experience. Access further ideas from the Careers and Enterprise Company's resource directory.

Employability skills and the workplace

The Careers Hub has produced ten videos and lesson plans to develop learners' employability skills, featuring East Sussex workplaces. See slide five (notes section) of each lesson plan to access the video link: