Industry Placements
How can taking on a student for industry placement benefit your business?
- Boost your corporate reputation
- Gain a qualified trainee for your company team 1 day a week
- Benefit from new ideas with the latest industry knowledge
- Reduce recruiting costs and gain early experience of new employees for the future
- A great way for existing employees aiming for line management to try it out
- Demonstrate a social conscience supporting the future local work force
BETTER MANAGEMENT AND MENTORING SKILLS
Placements create opportunities for staff to act as buddies, coaches or line managers to students. This helps existing staff gain management and mentorship skills, both of which are known to increase job satisfaction.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
For smaller employers, young people can be an invaluable source of new and interesting ideas that can change the way you think about doing business.
EXTRA HELP WITH PROJECTS
In an environment where staff are doing multiple roles and struggling to meet difficult deadlines, an industry placement student could help support a key piece of work.
IMPROVED DIVERSITY
Industry placements create opportunities for a diverse range of 16 to 19 year olds. Diversity helps your organisation understand customers better, creates better performing teams and increases innovation and creativity.
CREATE SHARED VALUE IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Traditionally, organisations have supported social causes by making charitable donations. Industry placements are different in that they help create ‘shared value’. They’re a way of giving back that benefits the young people in your community as well as your business.
ENHANCED BRAND IMAGE AND PROFILE
A commitment to industry placements raises your organisation’s profile, locally and nationally, especially as T Levels gain more public exposure with your customers and clients.
Interested on offering an industry placement? Please fill in the form at the bottom of the page.
Frequently Asked Questions –
What is an industry placement?
An Industry placement is an extended period of work experience that gives excellent opportunities to students and allows them to develop their skills in a role that is relevant to their vocational course. It also gives employers the opportunity to ensure that young people are developing the skills that the industry requires. Industry placements allow students to put what they have learned in the classroom into practice during the placement.
You may have heard about T Levels starting to come on stream for learners to mix classroom and industry experience as part of their studies. T Levels are a two-year qualification and during that time students spend most of their time working in the classroom but must also complete a 45-day placement with a local employer.
How long does a placement last?
The placement length can vary depending on how much time is needed to learn the job role. Placements must last a minimum of 315 hours (precisely 45 days). As the employer, placements can be offered in block sessions or on day release, however, this can be tailored depending on your needs as the employer. Where you may not be able to offer the full 315 hours then we could potentially share part of the placement between you and another employer. Industry placements are different from apprenticeships because they only make up 20% of the qualification whilst the other 80% will be spent in the classroom.
What are the employer’s responsibilities?
Employer’s responsibility include:
• Providing a safe work environment for the student
• An induction explaining policies and procedures
• Provide formal feedback of the student’s progress against the learning objectives when placement is completed.
We will work with you to help you plan the industry placement for the student to make sure they receive the best experience possible. Prior to the student starting placement, we will work with you to organise a work plan that will include learning activities that relate to your industry and organisation.
What equipment do I need to provide?
In order for the student to carry out their role, any relevant equipment must be provided by you as the employer.
How many hours will the student need to work?
Placements will be expected to take place on a normal working day e.g. Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, however, hours may differ depending on the job role and your requirements.
Will I have to pay the student for the time they spend with our business?
You as the employer can decide whether the student gets paid for the time they spend with you, however, this is not mandatory. We strongly encourage this wherever possible. The College can support the student with travel costs to and from your premises should the student qualify for this and need it.
What legal requirements do I have to adhere by?
It is your responsibility to ensure that the student is in safe hands during their time spent on placement. Prior to the placement, we will conduct a health and safety pre-vet and provide advice on the measures you will need to put into place (if any) prior to the student attending. As well as providing a safe environment for students, a suitable induction must be given by law as Health and Safety is your responsibility in the workplace.
You should take into consideration if anything needs to be done in terms of managing risks such as supervising the student when using equipment. It is crucial that if your business uses heavy machinery, you will need to check the student’s age to make sure that they are old enough to use it before any training begins.
If your industry placement student is carrying out tasks that form part of your normal work, and you already have up-to-date employer’s liability insurance and public liability insurance, then you will not need additional cover. However as your student will be placed with you for more than 2 weeks, you will need to notify your insurer of their employment.
Safeguarding
The training provider will check policies and procedures as they are responsible for safeguarding and the student’s wellbeing whilst at the industry placement and a site visit will be carried out before placement. The levels of risk will also be checked by us.
Will the student need a DBS Check?
Generally employers don’t need to carry out a basic Disclosing Barring Service (DBS) check on members of staff supervising 16-17 year olds, although we could ask employers to carry out a basic DBS check if necessary. A student may need an enhanced DBS check depending on their placement such as working in education.
Work Experience and Volunteering
Students at Chesterfield College are expected to carry out a work experience placement for a minimum of 30 hours to ensure they are developing the employability skills needed for the world of work. In preparing our local community’s future workforce, could your organisation help in providing a work experience or volunteering opportunity.
All students are encouraged to source their own work experience opportunities, however, our Work Experience team helps to support and guide them on their journey. They help to:
- Assist in the placing of student to company
- Carry out health and safety checks
Why is a work placement important?
A work placement will provide students with a realistic view of the world of work, and allow them to understand first-hand what it’s like to work in your sector. Having this opportunity will open their eyes to the variety of job roles available and help guide them when it comes to choosing which direction to take after their studies.
If you could provide a work experience programme to a student please fill out the form at the bottom of the page and we’ll get in touch with next steps.
Are you an organisation looking for volunteers?
From marshalling events to helping community garden projects, we’d love to hear about any volunteer needs in our wonderful local community so we can advertise these to our students. Fill out the form at the bottom of this page to get in touch and we’ll get in touch with the next steps.
Project by project
Many of our students are looking out for live projects, by which we mean something which is either briefed by or worked in partnership an external organisation. For example our Media students work with Chesterfield Football Club in filming home games and our Music students have held a concert outside Ashgate Hospicecare for its patients.
Whatever your project, we’d love to here from you to see how we can collaborate to benefit both the students and your organisation. Simply fill the form out below to let us know your idea and we’ll let you know the feasibility and what to do next!