Employers - WORK EXPERIENCE INFORMATION

Workload, organisation and insurance

A common misconception is that work experience is both hard to organise and difficult to set up.

We can guide you through the process and will contact you once you have agreed to take on a student to make the necessary arrangements. It really isn't daunting and takes little time. 

As long as your liability insurance provider is a member of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) or Lloyds, your existing liability insurance covers work experience students. Other insurers will amend the policy with a simple phone call.

If you are a first time provider willing to support a young person, we will meet and provide you with the required information necessary to support the application. 

What you need to do: 

If approached by  a Hastings student and agree to take them on for a placement, complete the Employers form that they provide you with and return it to the pupil or school.

We will then contact you to make the necessary arrangements.

Insurance, Risk and other guidance mythbusting (from the HSE website) 

https://www.hse.gov.uk/young-workers/employer/work-experience.htm

• Simply use your existing arrangements for assessments and management of risks to young people (if you have fewer than five employees you are not required to have a written risk assessment)

• Avoid repeating your assessment of the risks if a new student is of a broadly similar level of maturity and understanding, and has no particular or additional needs (the organiser or parent should tell you if they have)

• if you do not currently employ a young person, have not done so in the last few years or are taking on a work experience student for the first time, or one with particular needs, review your risk assessment before they start (we will help you with this on a pre placement visit)

• discuss the placement in advance with organisers and take account of what they and the parents or carers tell you of the student's physical and psychological capacity and of any particular needs, for example due to any health conditions or learning difficulties (you can request to meet the student for an interview prior to the placement). 

Keep any additional work in proportion to the environment:

• Low-risk environments, such as offices or shops, with everyday risks that will mostly be familiar to the student, your existing arrangements for other employees should suffice

• Environments with risks less familiar to the student (eg in light assembly or packing facilities), you will need to make arrangements to manage the risks. This will need to include induction, supervision, site familiarisation, and any protective equipment needed

• Higher-risk environments such as construction, agriculture and manufacturing you will need to:

• consider what work the student will be doing or observing, the risks involved and how these are managed, satisfy yourself that the instruction, training and supervisory arrangements have been properly thought through and that they work in practice

- consider specific factors that must be managed for young people, including exposure to radiation, noise and vibration, toxic substances, or extreme temperatures. Where these specific factors exist in your workplace, you should already have control measures in place. This will also apply to legally required age limits on the use of some equipment and machinery (eg forklift trucks and some woodworking machinery). Consider whether you need to do anything further to control the risks to young people

- explain to parents/carers of children what the significant risks are and what has been done to control them. This can be done in whatever way is simplest and suitable, including verbally, and is very often done via the school or college

- when you induct students, explain the risks and how they are controlled, checking that they understand what they have been told

- check that students know how to raise  health and safety concerns