Help students practise managing workplace challenges

Work experience is a valuable addition to any CV, and gaining an insight into different job roles can support young people in understanding the skills needed for the world of work. These student activities around work experience briefs help students understand what skills are required for job roles by completing tasks similar to ones they would be likely to complete on a real-life work experience placement.

The Practise managing workplace challenges workbook helps your students complete the tasks, they can either use the interactive fields to type out their ideas or use a printed version, including how they will present them to persuade others to take the idea forward. The briefs take 1-3 hours to complete, including research and development time. The briefs students can choose from are:

• Create an activity and presentation for a year 2 class to help them understand phonics and how they can be used as a tool for reading and writing
• Design a logo, poster and advertisement for a reusable water bottle to encourage people to reduce their use of single-use plastic 
• Using innovation to improve accessibility and develop ideas to help people with disabilities with banking  

If sharing with your students digitally, you can either download the document from this page or direct them to where the PDF is on the LifeSkills Young People’s site. Please note that students need to be 14 years old or older to have a LifeSkills account.

The practice meeting on workplace challenges and educator guidance contains some ideas to help you support students in answering the different sections of the briefs. If they are stuck for ideas, you can share this with your students, but try to encourage them to think creatively so they can come up with their own ways of completing the briefs.

As above, if you would like to share this document digitally, you can either download the document from this page or direct them to where the PDF is on the LifeSkills Young People’s site. Please note that students need to be 14 years old or older to have a LifeSkills account.

How will these briefs boost employability skills?

Core transferable skills such as creativity, proactivity, and problem solving are essential for succeeding in the workplace, and getting your students to complete briefs like these will help them develop and put these skills into action. By completing each task in the brief as creatively and innovatively as possible, they can practice the skills they already have and start to think about ones they may need support developing to be successful in their chosen industries.

Discover more ways your students can secure virtual work experience.