Work experience – why even the smallest of businesses can offer it

Amy Lishman, Head of Member Engagement and Deputy CEO at Brighton Chamber, writes about the chamber’s recent work experience students – and why, even if your business is small, you can benefit from opening your door to those who want to learn.

Back in July, Brighton Chamber welcomed two students from BHASVIC for a three-day work experience placement, a first for the Chamber. In the past offering placements has been tricky due to resource constraints with our small team. But this year, as part of our work with local schools and colleges, we put aside reservations and welcomed Lara and Massiel, two year 12 students from BHASVIC. It was a brilliant experience, and we’ll be offering work experience each year from now on.

It wasn’t without its challenges but the benefits for us far outweighed the cost. Here’s my rundown of the benefits to your business, and my top tips for making it a worthwhile and rewarding experience for you as an employer and for the student.

The benefit vs the cost

Supervising and organising the work for the placement students can be a brilliant opportunity for members of your team, or yourself, to develop people management skills. It was really rewarding seeing the progress of the two students over just three days. For me personally, it was one of the most rewarding bits of my job this year. Yes, it did take me out from doing my ‘day to day job’, and there were a few longer days catching up, but I was prepared for this, and in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t set me back even half as much as I thought it might.

Work experience students can do work that benefits your business. I wish my work experience placement at Northumberland Magistrates Court back in 2003 had realised this instead of getting me to shred hundreds of files, do basic data entry and make tea.

Lara and Massiel did work for the Chamber that mattered and gave us a fresh perspective. Amongst other things, they researched speakers for our events, created marketing mailers and marketing collateral for us, they wrote blogs and created surveys. Their work had a positive impact on our business.

With so much disruption to education in the last few years with Covid and ongoing industrial action, offering a real-life experience of the workplace just seemed like the right thing to do. They are the future workforce after all! Getting to know the students gave us an insight into what it’s like to be in education right now; the challenges and opportunities; and also the skills we need to work with schools to develop so that the future workforce is equipped with the learning and life experience needed for the careers of today and tomorrow.

Some learnings and tips for success

Arrange to speak to the student in advance of the placement, at minimum on the phone. This gives you the opportunity to find out more about the skills, experience, and interests of the person who’ll be joining you. It can also be a brilliant way to make a young person feel welcomed and motivated to join you.

Preparation is key – plan out tasks in advance and create a schedule. Our placement students said: “There was always someone there if I had any questions, but I found having an itinerary for the week to be particularly helpful in terms of getting orientated in the mornings.”

It might seem like considerably more effort to take on two students instead of just one, but we found that taking on two worked well. They chatted together and problem solved.

Treat them like a member of staff, not a student – give them independence, and see what they do with it. You’re not there to babysit them, they are there to work and experience the workplace – and sometimes that means getting into situations where they have run out of work and need to ask for more, ask for help and work on different tasks simultaneously.

Technology: it’s not the be all and end all! – As a small team, we don’t have spare laptops or desktops lying around. We had to get creative. The students didn’t need access to a computer for the entire duration of their work experience, so we could share laptops/desktops and created a programme of work where they weren’t stuck at their desk – we went to visit a workspace and attended a business event. They didn’t need access to email, and we used Google drive for document sharing.

Brighton Chamber is a dynamic, inclusive and welcoming membership organisation for businesses of all sizes. Head over to brightonchamber.co.uk to find out more.