Helping employers ‘Work it’

Here at BMet we have over 5000 learners aged 16-18 studying across a broad and varied curriculum.

Most of our students are required to complete an average of 35 hours of work experience for each year of their studies, including time spent on a work placement with an employer. Some even choose to undertake longer placements known as ‘Industry Placements’ which last for at least 315 hours per year and give students the opportunity to really test out what it’s like to work in their chosen career area.

To accommodate this, we are keen to build strong partnerships with organisations across the region who recognise the importance of good quality work placements for students and can offer mentoring support.

If you are keen to be part of our students’ journey – by providing high-quality work placements, then get in touch now and let us help you ‘work it’ out.

‘Work it’ is our work experience programme designed to ensure you and our learners fit together perfectly using a fresh and modern approach.

Work placements are ideal opportunities to introduce young people to the reality of working life, it also gives them an opportunity to be engaged, inspired and informed about what working life is really like. The longer ‘Industry Placements’ can also be used to support you with your business – maybe you could host a student every week for a year to help with a specific task, or perhaps you have a project idea that they could work on with you.

We encourage learners to source their own placements in the first instance, much in the way they would search for employment in the world of work. Where this is not possible we have a team of support staff to help identify the learner’s areas of interest and expertise and match them to one of our work partners.

We deliver work experience in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks, meaning work placements should be purposeful, substantial, offer a challenge and be relevant to the young person’s study programme and career aspirations.

Work placements are hugely beneficial to our learners. For many it will be their very first practical experience in the world of work and will:

• help learners mature and develop their confidence
• give them an understanding of the challenges within their chosen industry
• boost their CV and improve employability
• inform their potential chosen careers

Providing work placements is also valuable to your organisation and your industry as you will

• help to nurture fresh new ideas, perspectives and enthusiasm
• gain a direct insight into the next generation of talent
• improve morale amongst your existing employees by offering them mentoring opportunities and developing their management skills

If you are interested in helping to develop the next generation of skilled professionals, please contact our Work Placement Team