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This guidance aims to help teachers structure work-related experiences in ways that will maximise students’ learning.
It begins by looking at the experiential learning cycle and then provides detailed descriptions of how teachers can use the learning cycle to structure the following work-related activities:
- work experience
- workplace visits
- enterprise experience
- industry days
- work simulation
- mock interviews.
There is also guidance on how business partners can contribute at each stage of the learning cycle.
Experiential learning cycle
Experiential learning theory describes learning as a process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. It emphasises the central role of experience in learning. Learning is identified and consolidated by reflecting on and interpreting an experience. The benefits of experiential learning are that learning is often retained over a longer period, as opposed to recall after a short time without real understanding.
Experiential learning in the context of work-related experiences is deliberate learning that occurs through the design of structured experiences. It is increasingly used to promote work-related learning, which is best acquired through direct experience of work practices and environments.
The experiential learning process has been described as a four stage ‘learning cycle’ that begins with experience, continues with reflection and later leads to action:
- Stage 1: experience – students participate in an activity.
- Stage 2: reflection – students discuss the activity to articulate what has happened.
- Stage 3: generalisation – students draw out the lessons from their reflection on the activity.
- Stage 4: application – students apply the lessons learnt in new situations or activities.
Learners are also held to prefer a particular learning style, which follow the stages of the cycle:
- Activists – learn by immersing themselves in the task.
- Reflectors – learn by observing and describing what is going on.
- Theorists – learn by attempting to explain what has happened and to identify general principles.
- Pragmatists – learn by seeing how to use the experience to inform future actions.
The main applications of the theory for teachers are that:
- the teacher can use the experiential learning cycle to put a learning ‘frame’ around a work-related learning activity
- work-related activities should be structured to appeal to students with different learning styles
- tasks and activities set by the teacher should provide opportunities for students to practise and develop all four learning styles.
Tasks and activities that are relevant to stages two to four of the learning cycle include:
- Stage 2. Reflection:
Diaries and logs – including reflection on feelings as well as actions
Group discussion
Personal accounts – oral and written
Flip charting key ideas and issues
Brainstorming
Posters and pictograms – to illustrate experience
- Stage 3. Generalisation:
Individual and group presentations
Written reports
Data analysis
Projects
- Stage 4. Application:
Projects
Simulations
Role plays
Drama
Stories
Presentations
Questions and the learning cycle
Different types of debriefing question are associated with the different stages of the experiential learning cycle:
- Stage 2. Reflection: list, define, describe, label, name, quote, who, what, when, where
Examples:
Describe what you saw.
What did you do then?
List the three main points of your induction.
- Stage 3. Generalisation: analyse, assess, classify, compare, conclude, contrast, discuss, distinguish, explain, interpret, judge, order, select, summarise
Examples:
Compare your experience with other people in your group.
Explain why this problem might have occurred.
Summarise the main learning points.
- Stage 4. Application: apply, complete, create, demonstrate, design, experiment, formulate, illustrate, plan, prepare, present, what if?
Examples:
Demonstrate how you would greet a new customer.
Plan an induction programme for a new recruit to your business. What would you do if this problem occurred again?
Work experience
In designing a work-experience programme, teachers should consider how learning can be maximised both during the placement and, afterwards, during the debriefing stage.
Careful planning and appropriate briefing can structure the students’ learning during the placement to take into account the four stages of the experiential learning cycle. Stage 1 describes some typical experiences that students have on work experience. Stage 2 lists several ways students can be encouraged to reflect on their experience. Stage 3 moves beyond reflection to identifying learning outcomes. Finally, stage 4 identifies ways students can apply their learning during the placement itself.
Stage 1: Experience
Health and safety briefing.
Having an induction.
Work-shadowing a co-worker.
Attending meetings.
Talking on the telephone.
Interviewing a co-worker or manager.
Talking to customers.
Using equipment.
Working in a team.
Stage 2: Reflection
Recording what happens and feelings about each day in a diary or workbook.
Discussing each day’s work with co-worker or supervisor.
Answering reflective questions in a workbook.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Writing longer, more analytical pieces in a workbook.
Summarising what has been learnt.
Being asked to criticise their own work and sum-up good and bad points.
Demonstrating and describing a practical skill they have acquired.
Stage 4: Application
Using practical skills (having reflected and learnt from previous use).
Using personal and social skills developed during the placement with customers and co-workers.
Presenting a report on work organisation to their supervisor.
After the work placement (stage 1 of the learning cycle) teachers can maximise students’ learning by using questions to encourage reflection, generalisation and application during a debriefing session back at school. Debriefing is often done in groups and students can be asked to focus on some of the following questions.
Stage 1: Experience
The work placement.
Stage 2: Reflection
How welcome were you made to feel?
How did you feel on your first day? How did this change?
Describe your induction to the workplace.
What were the highs and lows of your placement?
What key incidents happened during your placement?
What tasks did you undertake?
What skills did you practise?
Who was your supervisor and how did you get on with them?
What did you find most interesting/useful/important/boring/difficult about your job?
How did the reality match your expectations?
Stage 3: Generalisation
What did you learn about working in the kind of work environment you were in (out of doors, in an office, and so on)?
What did you learn about health and safety?
What did you conclude about your readiness to join the workforce?
Which personal skills or qualities do you need to work on?
What did the manager and supervisor try to put across to you?
What explanation did your co-workers have for things going wrong? Did you agree with their reasons?
What did you learn about what makes a good manager?
What makes good employee and a good employer?
Stage 4: Application
What advice would you give to other students about working at your placement?
What will you do differently the next time you are employed or on work experience?
What are you going to do about improving on any weakness identified in your personal skills and qualities through work experience?
Prepare a presentation showing what you learnt and how you are going to try to change as a result of your work experience.
Prepare a dos and don’ts checklist for students going on work experience next year.
Workplace visits
Workplace visits are a common way of giving students a direct experience of work. Site visits usually start with a welcome, introductions and an overview of the company, followed by a tour of the premises and a final question-and-answer session. It is important to brief students prior to the visit to set the context and agree tasks and observations to be completed. To maximise learning from the experience, teachers should debrief visits on return to school. Questions and tasks can include the following:
Stage 1: Experience
The visit.
Stage 2: Reflection
What work was going on in the workplace?
What working environments did you experience? Can you describe them?
What feelings did you have whilst visiting the workplace? Would you like to work there?
What roles did the people have? What were their job titles and what did they do?
Were there differences in the jobs being undertaken by men and women/younger and older people/people from minority ethnic and majority ethnic groups?
What work processes did you observe in action?
How were people using ICT at the workplace?
What did you find out about pay and conditions/working hours/trade unions, and so on?
Stage 3: Generalisation
What did you learn about production, marketing, personnel, and so on?
How could the working conditions have been improved for the staff?
Construct an organisation chart for the company.
What did you learn about public relations?
Why does the company host school visits?
What makes a good working environment?
Make a list of the characteristics of a good employer.
Companies often remark that people are their most important asset. Did you find evidence for this during the visit?
Construct a flow diagram to show the processes you saw at the workplace.
Stage 4: Application
Write a short report on your visit.
If you were an entrepreneur setting up a company, what good points would you want to take from the company you visited and what bad points would you want to leave out?
Write and act out a short roleplay involving the roles you saw in action at the workplace.
Describe what you would look for in another visit to a workplace.
What did you learn on the visit that is useful to your school work.
Enterprise experience
Enterprise experiences can include simulated mini-enterprises in which students are organised into a ‘company’ offering a service or product. They might also include a series of shorter activities aimed at developing enterprise skills, an understanding of entrepreneurship or social enterprise.
Introducing enterprise activities into the curriculum can serve a variety of different purposes. It is important that the aims and learning objectives are well defined. The following questions relate to different dimensions, such as the importance of roles, decision making, climate, creativity, product or service viability, budgets, problem solving and business planning.
Stage 1: Experience
The enterprise activities.
Stage 2: Reflection
What roles did you have in your enterprise activity?
How did you decide who would take on which roles?
What were the high and low points of your enterprise experience?
What words best describe the atmosphere in your enterprise team?
How did you decide on your enterprise idea?
What made you decide to go with that idea?
What kinds of market research did you carry out?
What budget and other resources did you need for your enterprise?
How did you raise the money to run your enterprise?
What problems did you face when running your enterprise?
How did you tackle these problems?
How did you treat your customers?
What key skills did you practise?
Stage 3: Generalisation
How clear were the roles in your enterprise team? Did any of the roles come into conflict with each other?
What were the causes of the difficulties in your team?
How effective was the team at making decisions?
What conclusions did you draw from your market research?
How would you judge whether your enterprise was a success or a failure?
What factors made your enterprise a success or a failure?
What does your balance sheet show about the operation of your enterprise?
How important were your customers to your enterprise? Why are customers so important?
What are the most important key skills involved in setting up and running an enterprise?
What have you learnt about self-employment?
Stage 4: Application
What are the key points to remember when setting up an enterprise?
Prepare a list of dos and don’ts for managers running an enterprise.
How would you make decisions next time you are involved in a group with a set of tasks to carry out?
How would you improve your market research next time?
What are the best ways of judging the success of an enterprise?
Demonstrate how you could deliver good customer care.
Prepare a report on your enterprise making some recommendations on how it could be improved.
Which key skills do you most need to develop and practise?
How can you find out more about self-employment and enterprise?
Industry days
These are events usually of half-a-day or longer in which students experience a range of activities designed to increase their understanding of the world of work and improve their work readiness or employability skills. A feature of industry days is that employers, and less frequently trade unionists, are involved as adults-other-than-teachers, running activities, presenting case studies based on their own experience or providing a reality check on classroom-based work-related activities.
Stage 1: Experience
The industry day.
Stage 2: Reflection
What key messages for young people have the business people given today?
What roles did you play today in the activities?
What skills did you use in the exercises?
Share the notes you have made on employability with your partner.
What were the most interesting parts of the day?
What did you hear about equal opportunities at work?
What did you hear that put you off a particular area of work?
What things surprised you about what was said?
Stage 3: Generalisation
Why is the local economy offering these kinds of jobs today?
What values underpinned the talks given by managers and trade unionists?
What are employability skills and why are they important at work?
What personal qualities do employers value? Which employability skills and personal qualities do you need to develop and practise?
What did you learn about rights and responsibilities at work?
Stage 4: Application
Update your career action-plan.
Investigate local employment opportunities.
Develop a plan to develop and practise your key employability skills and personal qualities.
Prepare a list of dos and don’ts for young people who want to succeed in a workplace.
Work simulation
Work simulations can take various forms, including role plays, business games or production simulations. Other work simulations involve more elaborate mirroring of the work environment, for example by setting up a ‘restaurant’ or ‘office’ in the school.
Stage 1: Experience
The work simulation.
Stage 2: Reflection
What happened from your point of view?
What role did you take in the simulation?
What were the tasks you had to carry out in your role?
How did you decide to play the role?
What interactions did you have with people in other roles?
What was your strategy within the simulation?
What resources did you have to complete your tasks?
What skills did you use?
What problems did you face? How did you respond to these problems?
How did you feel during the simulation?
Stage 3: Generalisation
What caused the problems in the simulation?
What kinds of behaviour led to the problems being resolved?
In what ways was the simulation like ‘real’ work and different from ‘real work’?
What have you learnt about management at work?
What have you learnt about being a good team player at work?
What skills are important for managers and for employees?
Stage 4: Application
How would you respond now when faced with similar situations?
Make a list of the kinds of behaviours that help workplaces to run smoothly.
Write and act out a roleplay showing a meeting between a customer and sales assistant.
How would you reorganise the workplace to make things work more efficiently?
How might you behave differently now on work experience or in your part-time work?
Mock interviews
Mock interviews are a common way of developing interview skills including self-presentation. They generally involve employers simulating a job interview. Feedback is offered as a way of improving students’ performance in future interviews. Teachers can maximise learning with a whole-group debriefing.
Stage 1: Experience
The mock interview.
Stage 2: Reflection
How did you prepare for the interview?
Did you anticipate the questions you were asked?
What was the first question?
Which questions did you find easier to answer?
Which were the most difficult questions?
How did you feel before and during the interview?
How effectively did you control your body language during the interview? (eye contact, use of hands, sitting position)
What feedback did you receive from your employer?
Stage 3: Generalisation
How well prepared were you for the interview?
What do you need to do to prepare for an interview?
What have you learnt about how to conduct yourself during an interview?
How should you deal with difficult questions that you do not understand?
How should you use your body, hands and face during the interview to create favourable impressions?
What are the things you should not do during an interview?
What do employers say are the most important things to remember when being interviewed?
Stage 4: Application
Prepare notes for a second interview.
Roleplay ‘how not to’ give an interview with a partner.
Put the lessons into practice during an interview for work experience or for a part-time job.
Make a checklist of dos and don’ts when being interviewed.
The role of business partners
Work-related learning involves a partnership in learning between employers, teachers and students. Teachers are not the only people who can help students’ learning from experience. Business people can take on various roles at each stage of the learning cycle. Clearly, they need to be made aware of the role that the school expects them to undertake and to have the time and capacity to undertake these roles. In some cases, the roles could be undertaken either by the teacher or the business partner. The examples given are meant to be exemplary rather than exhaustive.
Work experience
Business partners can support learning from work experience, before, during and after the placement.
Stage 1: Experience
Offer work experience placements and take part in preparation activities.
Interview the student before the placement.
Plan and deliver an induction programme.
Develop a varied and challenging series of tasks.
Act as a workplace mentor or supervisor.
Be interviewed by the student.
Be shadowed by the student.
Stage 2: Reflection
Discuss the student's logbook or diary.
Meet the student for ten minutes at the end of each day.
Ask questions about what the student has learnt today.
Comment on the positive aspects of the student’s work.
Take part in school-based debriefing.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Ask the student to make a presentation about what he or she has found out about your company or work in general.
Conduct a formal debriefing session at the end of the placement.
Provide case study information about their company.
Offer videos and other literature that can be used by students in presenting what they have learnt about the industry.
Act as an audience for students’ presentations and offer their own perspectives on points raised.
Stage 4: Application
Identify opportunities for the student to apply lessons learnt in the first week for their second week.
Ask the student to talk about the skills acquired in school that are being used on the placement.
Provide work-based problems that can be used in follow-up work.
Suggest ways that students can develop their skills in feedback or assessment forms.
Workplace visits
Stage 1: Experience
Offer workplace visits.
Provide a knowledgeable guide.
Show a video giving an overview of the industry or company.
Provide worksheets to guide students’ observations.
Prepare briefings to cover specific curriculum-related issues.
Organise a space in the programme for students to ask questions.
Stage 2: Reflection
Set questions or a quiz for students to complete during the visit.
Stop the video and pose questions.
Ask students in small groups to produce questions at the end of the visit.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Ask small groups of students to make a short presentation on what they have found out about particular topics.
Provide students with background information on your company and/or the industry to take away at the end of the visit.
Stage 4: Application
Visit the school to act as an audience for student presentations on what they found out from their visit.
Advise schools via email on follow-up projects.
Enterprise experience
Stage 1: Experience
Talk to students about their entrepreneurial experiences.
Brief students on their roles in the enterprise.
Act as mentors during the enterprise experience.
Take on a role in the enterprise experience, eg banker.
Provide an audience for students’ sales talks.
Stage 2: Reflection
Ask questions during the enterprise to make the team reflect on the process.
Ask questions during the debriefing of the enterprise.
Ask the students to describe their own perspectives on what happened in the enterprise teams.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Compare their experience with that of the student enterprises.
Provide short inputs or written materials on general principles, eg sales and marketing.
Act as an audience for students’ presentations on what they learnt.
Stage 4: Application
Provide examples/materials of how enterprise skills are used in their own organisation.
Devise problem-solving activities based on situations faced by their own organisations.
Industry days
Stage 1: Experience
Provide resources and written materials.
Provide speakers on specialist topics, eg marketing.
Act as co-facilitators of classroom activities.
Invite a trade unionist to accompany a manager.
Stage 2: Reflection
Feed back their observations of the activity.
Compare and contrast the activity with their experience.
Ask questions to encourage student reflection.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Provide short inputs on employability.
Describe the principles that operate in their industry.
Comment on students’ learning, filling in knowledge gaps.
Stage 4: Application
Describe how key skills used during the day are required in the industry.
Provide examples of further problems that students can work on.
Provide work experience for students to further develop key skills and employability.
Work simulation
Stage 1: Experience
Act as co-facilitators of the simulation.
Brief students in particular roles, eg managers.
Present the background scenario to the simulation, eg the industry.
Provide ‘props’ and materials to make the simulation more realistic, eg electronic parts in a ‘design and make’ activity.
Take on a role during the simulation, eg banker.
Stage 2: Reflection
Take a lead role in debriefing students.
Feed back their observations of the activity.
Compare and contrast the simulation with their company experience.
Ask questions to encourage student reflection.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Compare the simulation with their experience of reality in the industry.
Describe the principles that operate in their industry.
Reinforce general points made by students.
Comment on students’ learning, filling in knowledge gaps.
Stage 4: Application
Identify the key skills used in the simulation and describe how they are relevant to their industry.
Suggest ways in which students can further develop their work-related skills.
Mock interviews
Stage 1: Experience
Advise on the format for the interviews.
Provide experienced interviewers.
Provide ‘trainee’ interviewers.
Stage 2: Reflection
Ask students to reflect on how the interview went.
Feed back to students the ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ parts of the interview.
Offer insights based on their own experience of interviews and interviewing.
Stage 3: Generalisation
Provide guidance on interview technique.
Role-play ‘good’ and ‘bad’ interviews for the group.
Summarise the main points employers look for in interviews.
Stage 4: Application
Interview students for a second time so they can try to put principles into practice.
Interview students at the workplace.
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Page updated: Tuesday, August 10, 2004