Are you a business owner? Or do you work for a company that could take on a work experience student? The benefits of work experience for students may be clear, but how can your business benefit from participating in a work experience programme?

Find out here what it can do for your productivity, staff training and your industry as a whole. Plus, read on for our tips on making the most of the opportunity.

 

It gives you a chance to shape the future of your industry

Offering work experience allows you to inspire and influence the future leaders of your industry. At the same time, you’ll enhance the reputation of your company in the industry and the local community and do your bit for society and the economy.

 

Offering work experience can be used as a low-cost recruitment channel

If you’re looking for fresh talent, offering work experience is a relatively inexpensive way to discover new and soon-to-be qualified graduates from your former college. You’re not obligated to hire the students you take on for work experience, but it’s an excellent chance to get to know the young people entering your industry (and there’s also a great chance you’ll find someone who’s an ideal fit for your team).

 

Work experience students can be a welcome extra pair of hands

Our students know that their work experience is a vital opportunity to get to see the world of work and kick-start their careers, so they’ll be eager to learn and help out with meaningful tasks that you and your fellow employees don’t always have time to do.

 

Your staff can benefit from management experience

Supervising a work experience student is a brilliant opportunity for your current employees to develop their management skills, especially if you don’t have the resources for a formal line management training programme.

 

Tips for getting the most out of offering work experience – why you should create an activity plan

Find meaningful tasks

Neither the business nor the student benefits if their work experience placement is limited to making coffee and endless photocopying. If you take the time to make an activity plan of non-urgent tasks that are valuable to you, and that the student can take ownership of, everyone wins. Choose tasks that will benefit the business but typically get cast aside in favour of more urgent tasks, such as:

• Competitor research (which the student can then present to the team)
• Creating a social media calendar or blogging calendar
• Designing and conducting customer satisfaction surveys
• Researching and brainstorming ideas for business development

 

Take the time to understand their interests before they start

Learn about what they want from the experience, then give them a chance to work in many different aspects of the business, completing projects that engage them and provide them with something to be proud of. They’ll work harder, and you could get a fresh perspective on your business.

 

Schedule meetings

Creating a thorough activity plan means spending less time monitoring them. It also gives them a sense of independence and shows them you trust them to get the work done. However, rather than giving them all their tasks at the start of the placement and forgetting about them, give them deadlines and a schedule they need to keep to, just like a regular job. Involve them in the day-to-day goings on, invite them to attend important team meetings, and schedule regular, shorter catch-ups where they can fill you in on their progress so far.

 

Find out about offering work experience with Derby College