New research from Speakers for Schools finds that a decline in work experience is negatively impacting students’ chances of getting into the top universities despite their schools’ results. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is disproportionately affecting those from under-resourced backgrounds.
But work experience isn’t the whole story. It’s part of a bigger problem: an ever-widening gap between school life and the outside world. What work experience delivers is a certain amount of predictability about what comes next, but there are other ways to build the strength and resilience that students derive from it.
Our approach emphasises the importance of acknowledging the inevitability of change throughout each student’s sixth form journey. Our work to prepare students intentionally for their next steps is guided by three themes:
Students need to know what to expect
By raising awareness, teachers can help to bridge the ‘expectation-reality’ gap typically experienced by school leavers. Our top three recommendations are:
Embrace opportunities to teach real-world implications
Cultivate accountability to minimise the gap between students’ familiar space of pastoral care and an environment with comparatively fewer support structures. Seize opportunities to teach lessons about the potential consequences of negligence in the outside world.
Encourage students to reflect on their relationships and support network
Manage the ‘friendship gap’ by highlighting the intentional effort required to construct a social network. Emphasise how school connections developed over time. Encourage students to identify their new support network and signpost services that offer free and confidential 24/7 support.
Prepare students for readjustment to university or the workplace
Allow university-bound students to experience undergraduate-style teaching. Introduce undergraduate assessment methods and address the ‘achievement standard gap’ between A level and university. Familiarise students with academic referencing and TurnItIn before their first summative assignment at university.
For those headed into jobs or work-based learning, teach workplace etiquette through scenario-based learning, highlight the essentials of employment contracts and outline the financial responsibilities of employment and self-employment.
Students need to know how to respond
As students begin to manage their expectations, practical strategies are more likely to stick. Our top three strategies are to:
Teach the three pillars of wellbeing:
- Eat: Encourage a balanced diet and highlight the nutritional value of different foods. Promote water tracker apps to foster healthy hydration.
- Move: Set daily activity challenges within form groups to reverse the trend of declining physical activity post-school. Self-defence exercises are doubly useful here.
- Sleep: Recommend grey-scale mode on devices and promote good sleep hygiene.
Signpost channels of academic support
Encourage pre-visits or virtual tours to familiarise students with the higher education environment. Promote apps and AI tools for workload management, interactive learning and time management.
Empower students for the modern workplace
In an age of hybridisation, digital transformation and reskilling, school leavers need practical training in managing remote working arrangements, dedicated sessions to self-advocacy in the workplace and signposted continuous learning opportunities.
Students need to know their intentions
With uncertainties unveiled and strategies signposted, students need to think intentionally about how they might behave in their new environments. Our top three suggestions are to:
Promote a self-regulated and intentional approach to wellbeing
Encourage self-reflection according to established wellbeing frameworks and introduce Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky’s Person-Fit-Activity diagnostic tool to discover personalised wellbeing strategies.
Help students to identify the strengths and gaps in their own skillset
Consider holistic skill alignment exercises to identify how students’ skillsets meet the expectations of their new environment. Are they prepared for collaborative working or independent research? Devise a plan to develop any additional skills needed for success.
Work with students to establish realistic goals for year one
Engage students in purposeful goal setting, self-reflection practices and personal value exploration. Explore who they want to be after they leave school and be sure that goals are manageable.
The gap between school life and the adult world will never cease to daunt school leavers and parents. But if we empower students to recognise the realities of post-school life, we can arm them with strategies to thrive – whatever their next steps.
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