Why work experience benefits your business
Offering work experience is not just a social good. Offering work experience is a strategic investment in your workforce, your brand, and your organisation’s long-term resilience.
Through Futures For All and the Work Experience Finder, businesses can connect with thousands of young people across the UK while building stronger talent pipelines and demonstrating meaningful social impact.
Benefits of offering work experience
All the benefits for your business
Build your future talent pipeline
Engaging with students early allows your organisation to:
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Identify motivated young people before they enter the job market
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Shape skills and awareness relevant to your sector
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Create long-term brand familiarity with future candidates
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Reduce future recruitment friction
Work experience provides early exposure that can translate into apprenticeships, internships and long-term employment.
Address skills gaps proactively
Many industries face growing skills shortages. Work experience helps:
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Develop industry awareness earlier
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Strengthen employability skills
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Encourage interest in underrepresented sectors
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Support more informed career decision-making
Rather than reacting to shortages later, you can help influence future talent now.
Strengthen your social mobility impact
Access to work experience is not evenly distributed. By offering placements, your organisation helps:
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Widen access for students without professional networks
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Create fairer access to opportunity
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Support regional and national inclusion efforts
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Demonstrate a clear commitment to social impact
This isn’t just reputational – it also aligns with your ESG, CSR, and diversity goals.
Enhance your employer brand
Opening your doors to young people strengthens your visibility and reputation.
You can:
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Showcase your workplace culture
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Highlight career pathways within your organisation
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Engage employees in mentoring and leadership development
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Build positive relationships with schools and communities
Work experience creates authentic brand engagement at an early stage.
Flexible and manageable
Through the Work Experience Finder, businesses can:
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Offer in-person, remote or hybrid placements
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Provide short insight sessions or multi-day experiences
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Scale activity based on capacity
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Register and list placements free of charge
You maintain control over the format, timing and number of placements.
Supported every step of the way
Futures For All provides:
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Safeguarding and compliance guidance
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Structured processes and teacher-reviewed applications
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Optional enhanced partnership support
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Clear frameworks for delivering meaningful placements
This ensures the experience benefits both students and your organisation.
A strategic investment in the future
Offering work experience is one of the most practical ways to influence the future workforce while strengthening your organisation today.
By listing placements on the Work Experience Finder, you make opportunity visible and accessible — while positioning your organisation as forward-thinking, responsible and committed to developing talent.
Start building your future workforce today
Offering work experience is one of the most practical ways to influence the future workforce while strengthening your organisation today. Together, we can open doors for young people who might otherwise miss out on meaningful experiences.
Join Futures For All and list your placements for free on the Work Experience Finder.
Quick answers to FAQs
What companies offer work experience and in what industries?
We work with 100s of employers, including the BBC, National Trust, Spotify, Bentley Motors, Boots, the NHS and many other high-profile companies. We offer work experience from a wide range of career types which means we are able to offer placements in Creative & Media Arts, Tech, Science & Engineering, Environment & Infrastructure, Sports, Travel & Hospitality, Business, Finance & Retail, and Law, Care & Community, as well as many more specific industries.
When browsing the list of available opportunities on our website, you can filter your search by career cluster and industry. We update these opportunities every week throughout the year, so if you can't find a placement to match your exact requirements, keep checking to make sure you don't miss out on any new work experience placements!
Does work experience interfere with exams?
Exams are a crucial part of school life, and we understand that students in key exam years are already extremely busy with revision and exam timetables. We work closely with our employers to ensure that we offer a wide selection of placements for all key year groups throughout the year, so that students sitting final exams are still able to participate at other points throughout the academic year.
What are the benefits of remote work experience?
Remote Work Experience removes the geographical and cost barriers that may prevent young people from participating in work experience. It allows young people from anywhere in the UK to access a broad range of opportunities with employers from industries that may not be well-represented in their local area and it provides young people with the chance to take part in multiple opportunities to really explore their options.
All online work experience placements offered by Futures For All offer are employer-led and are hosted in a secure online setting so that young people can safely attend live presentations, participate in interactive and collaborative real-time tasks and activities, and ‘meet’ working professionals from the employer’s organisation. All multi-day remote work experience placements offered by Futures For All meet Gatsby Benchmarks 5 and 6, and our shorter sessions meet Gatsby Benchmark 5.
How do we safeguard our virtual broadcasts
Futures For All is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all users, whether that is in a classroom, workplace environment, or in a remote setting. Access the full Safeguarding Policy Statement here.
Why is work experience important?
Work experience provides a way for young people to build their skills, expand their networks, and explore the world of careers while still in education. Our research shows that doing work experience while in education increases a young person's future annual earnings and improves their employability.
Who is work experience for?
At Futures For All, we offer work experience placements for young people aged 14-19, not just school leavers or a particular year group. In order to give students and schools and colleges maximum flexibility, we also run placements throughout the year.
Year 10 and Year 12 are great times to consider doing work experience to help the young person make more informed decisions about what comes next in their life plan and to help build their confidence as they start to explore future careers. Work experience is a valuable addition to a young person's CV or personal statement and can be especially helpful as supporting evidence for a university application, a job application, or an apprenticeship application.
We are mindful that there is a lot of pressure on students in the build-up to their exams, however, we offer convenient options for work experience that can fit with even the busiest study schedules. Students can apply and take part in work experience at any point in the academic year provided that their school/college supports their participation.
We also support schools with introductory, bite-sized 3-5-hour Insight Days that take place in class time and include guided activities, and short, virtual 1-hour career talks.