Work Inspiration

Work Inspiration is a UK wide campaign led by BITC mobilising businesses to turn Work Experience into Work Inspiration, to bridge the gap between the classroom and the world of work.

Why should you join the Campaign?

By joining the Campaign you become a Work Inspiration Employer which means you:

• Agree that work placements are important
• Commit to rethink the work placements you offer

As a Work Inspiration employer we expect you to:

• Hold a planning workshop (called an Internal Big Conversation) – to rethink what you offer
• Use the Insights in your work placement programme, to turn Work Experience into Work Inspiration

When you join the Campaign we offer:

• A branded business card on www.workinspiration.com
• Free and unlimited access to the insights, tools and other resources that provides:
  • online interactive work books to support the insights
  • employee volunteer skills development logs
  • inspirational videos with examples of good practices
  • a magazine on work experience
  • a variety of other resources and good practices
• An opportunity to provide new ideas or showcase your good practices - from time to time we hope to invite you to filming days for us to capture the best and refresh the site
• An opportunity to develop additional media rich content for your company profile that will also be delivered, via our campaign technology partner U-Explore into over 1,000 schools across the country
• The right to use the Work Inspiration logo to promote your company

Benefits to the Employer of offering Work Inspiration

The benefits to the employer will vary from organisation to organisation. From our experience effective work placements can deliver the following:

• Recruitment – work placements are a good way to identify the best future talent for recruitment
• Strategic skills acquisition – young people are the future workforce and if your organisation requires key skills for the future, for example in engineering, the right work placement programme can raise young people’s aspirations and interest in these areas
• Staff Engagement and morale – Staff can also benefits from the fresh outlook, new ideas and energy that the young people can bring. This is the right thing to do for young people and can help improve staff morale and pride in your organisation, which can be an important part of an effective staff retention strategy
• Diversity - young people will be making important choices about their future direction, by engaging with them in the right way you can have a real impact on the future diversity of your work force
• Staff skills and development – work placements can offer a good opportunity for staff to develop new skills. Examples of the skills include setting objectives, managing performance, and giving feedback etc.
• Staff engagement – many companies link work placements to their volunteering programme and widen the ways in which staff can engage with the business and the community
• Support for Corporate Responsibility Strategy – particularly were the strategy focuses on young people or educational impact. For example there are a number of work experience programmes that particularly focus on supporting young people who are emerging from the care system and supporting them into the world of work

It is important for the organisation to be clear on the key benefits it is aiming to deliver as this can help to ensure that these benefits can be maximised and will help ensure that the work placement programme is sustainable.