Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reinstate two weeks of compulsory work experience in schools.

Earlier this year, we updated the careers statutory guidance reflecting the revised Gatsby Benchmarks of good careers guidance and included the new definition of meaningful workplace experiences to raise the quality of work experience.

In this guidance we also set out the vision for this government’s priority for the delivery of two weeks’ worth of meaningful work experience for all pupils over the course of their secondary education, irrespective of background.

Building on the Gatsby Benchmark 6 definition for Experiences of Workplaces, we will ensure that all pupils have multiple, meaningful and varied high-quality workplace experiences, including one weeks’ worth of workplace activities between years 7-9 and one weeks’ worth of work placement between years 10-11, progressively increasing their exposure to different places of work.

We are currently piloting a new flexible model of work experience, designed to reduce barriers for young people, schools and employers. The department will set out more details of the work experience guarantee in due course.