October 9, 2025
Youth Fed, who are a Northwest-based charity, have today launched a practical guide to modern work experience for young people, parents/carers, schools and employers at the Ellesmere Port Careers Fair hosted by Cheshire College South & West. The guide, generously funded by the Westminster Foundation, promotes the new approach recognised by the government. This modern take on experiences of work is much more than the traditional one week of work experience, which often didn’t benefit the young person or the business. It was a big commitment for the business, and the young person often ended up doing tasks that didn’t give a true feeling for the job or sector. The government’s ambition is a move towards all young people having access to at least 50 hours of work experience, and current thinking is that those experiences should be with various employers and/or workplaces, starting at a younger age and with progression over time.
The guide provides tips, examples and best practice based on Youth Fed’s delivery of the Pledge, the charity’s exemplar careers programme, which it has delivered for ten years.
Pledge Lead Trevor Langston said, “Modern work experience provides many benefits for both the young person and the employer. As well as allowing a young person to broaden their horizons and explore options that they may never have thought about, the business benefits from developing their future workforce and building awareness of the business. This Modern Work Experience Guide provides hints and tips and shares examples of good practice from schools and businesses we’ve worked with.”
CEO of Youth Fed, Chris Hindley OBE, added, “We know that securing quality work experience can purely be down to connections of family and friends, but not everyone is lucky to have those networks, and we are passionate about making sure all young people have equal access to meaningful experiences of the workplace. This is a passion that is shared by the Westminster Foundation, and we are deeply grateful for their support of this guide and also the Pledge programme in West Cheshire.”
“We’re thrilled to support the production of Youth Fed’s important new guide to modern work experience, which reflects our commitment to helping young people thrive as they transition into the world of work. We hope this will be a really useful resource for students, parents, schools, businesses, and charities as they navigate how to source or enable meaningful work experience opportunities.” – Caroline Da Cunha, Cheshire Grant Manager, Westminster Foundation.