Work experience at Peterborough City Council

Calling all Peterborough residents, schools and community groups - we want to hear from you! Help us to shape work experience at Peterborough City Council.

Help us shape our work experience programme by completing our survey

We are redesigning our work experience programme for our city's students. This forms part of a wider offer for early careers at Peterborough City Council.

Have your say in creating meaningful work experience for young people by completing our short survey. All responses are anonymous.

Read on to find out about what steps we've taken so far.

Our work experience redesign project

Phase 1 - Project launch

Peterborough's Youth MPs Danielle Daboh and Pranav Aggarwal have been very busy working with the Early Careers team to improve our work experience offer. They launched the project by:

• Speaking at meetings and meeting staff from different services and levels of the organisation
• Hearing about previous placements and what the long-term goals for the programme could look like
• Designing a public survey for residents so we can hear from young people, families, schools and community groups in the city
• Issuing a staff survey

Thank you to Danielle and Pranav for kick-starting this important project!

During phase 1:

1. Employees were asked to consider what practical steps we can take for Peterborough's youth in this programme, particularly those who are children in care, have additional needs, or are from under-represented backgrounds; groups who typically can find it harder to access work experience.
2. As well as what is working well, our Youth MPs wanted to understand what challenges a team might experience, or obstacles which we can help remove
3. They asked us to look at how we can enable more teams to join the programme to have a rich and wide offer, and what the benefits to Peterborough are, for young people to be offered engaging work experiences in each directorate.
4. Furthermore, they wondered how teams can maximise collaboration during work experience placements.

Phase 2 - We listened to feedback

Opinions from respondents about work experience so far:

• We have a responsibility to offer quality work experience as it benefits young people, the council, the local community and schools
• We have a duty to make work experience more accessible and inclusive for those from under-represented backgrounds, young people that have additional needs, children in care and care leavers.
• We should find innovative ways to showcase all careers at the council, including those which present challenges in terms of sensitive or confidential nature.
• It is difficult for a young person to secure quality work experience, and this has got harder in recent times.
• The main difficulties on offering work experience at the council are:
• Capacity to support a young person and to prepare resources
• Data protection concerns
• Sensitive / inappropriate nature of work

Suggestions for the work experience programme

• Improve the information available to students on our website. Include clear instructions including who can apply, how to apply, when to apply and who to contact. Inform students about what our workplaces are like, what teams we have, what will be expected of students, and practical details like what people wear and what they should do about lunch.
• Send the student some team info before their work experience so they understand what professionals they'll be spending their time with.
• Offer successful applicants a virtual or informal face-to-face meeting ahead of placement, e.g. coffee in the building, a building tour, light pre-reading, and practical information such as lunch arrangements.
• EDI initiatives should be implemented to increase representation, including training, identifying and removing barriers, reviewing accommodations, and systematically address any misconceptions which may limit opportunities.
• Talk with the young people finding out what they need directly.
• Hold open days for students to learn about what we do, rather than just work experience.
• Plan and create ways for careers involving sensitive work to be showcased rather than allowing the challenges to prevent us offering work experience.
• Improve collaboration so that teams can co-host meaning students don't have to pick only one team.
• Consider virtual work experience programmes, and how this would work.
• Partner with schools, community groups, and faith-based organisations in underrepresented communities.
• Where dates allow, try to arrange a group of students to be on placement at the same time for peer support and the social side of work.
• Provide the young person with a tailored workplan on their first day and clear instructions.
• Design work on case studies, mock situations or 'story books' where students are given a situation, and their decisions influence the direction of the ‘story’ to promote evaluation and discussion.
• Arrange time during the work experience for students to chat to colleagues and ask about career journeys, the rewards and realities of particular careers.
• Set some meaningful, independent project work for the student to manage throughout their placement (as well as specific tasks and team work too).

Phase 3 - Implement changes

We are already making improvements and will continue to do so, for the programme to go from strength to strength. Here are just some of the steps we have taken so far:

• The survey at the top of the page will remain open so we can hear from Peterborough's residents.
• We have launched new website pages dedicated to the work experience programme, so that students understand the application process and who can apply as well as find lots of information about what work experience with us is like, and what support is available for those with additional needs.
• We are considering insight days which will help showcase careers which have been difficult to offer work experience on, such as where there are confidentiality and sensitivity issues, e.g. social care.
• We are building resources for students with scenario-based work or case studies to use when doing work experience in such careers, and hope these will be launched in for the 2025-26 cohort.
• We are offering different styles of work experience to give students the choice of being based in one team only or across different teams in the organisation.
• We are looking into where a virtual work experience could work, and students are now given the option to indicate their preference on their application form.
• Managers and host teams have been provided with more resources and guidance to support them in providing a consistently high standard for work experience.
• A learning journal and work experience pack has now been developed to give to students on their first day and includes information about their schedule so they understand how their days will be spent.
• We have changed our application process so that students can apply in a variety of ways, if the traditional application form does not suit them. They can let us know how they wish to apply- over the phone, voice note, a video or a different way altogether!
• We have created a page on our website letting people know how we can help with reasonable adjustments for work experience, and increased the ways that a student can advise us of any additional support they need.
• We are taking positive action to encourage applications from under-represented groups, with statements shown across our website, application forms and intranet. We welcome applications from students of all backgrounds and are particularly keen to support individuals who may face additional barriers to gaining work experience or who are underrepresented such as: Care Leavers, students from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities and those with Disabilities. We proudly serve the vibrant and diverse communities of Peterborough and are committed to reflecting this diversity within our team. A diverse workforce benefits everyone – our employees, the organisation, and the communities we serve.

Contact earlycareers@peterborough.gov.uk with any work experience queries or visit our work experience webpages.