Work Experience Toolkit: For studentsFor parents/carersFor hosts For schools
This toolkit is designed to help students, parents/carers, schools and hosts plan for and support high-quality work experience in the creative industries.
It brings together shared standards, practical guidance and suggested tools to help placements feel welcoming, meaningful, well-supported and safe. It is intended to make planning and delivery clearer and more consistent, while still allowing schools, hosts and partners to adapt materials to their own context and systems.
About this toolkit
This toolkit has been developed through the Next Generation Creatives work experience pilot, delivered by Mission Accomplished in partnership with Discover! Creative Careers, with support from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Mission Accomplished is the organisation responsible for delivering the pilot and for bringing together the educational, creative and organisational partnerships needed to test and refine this work in practice. Mission Accomplished’s role has been to connect the worlds of schools and the creative industries in a way that is practical, ambitious and grounded in the realities of both.
This toolkit has been shaped with young people, for young people. Students from BOA Stage & Screen Production Academy played an important role in its development, contributing their insight and experience, producing the accompanying film, and helping to define the Five Pillars of High-quality Work Experience as a shared way of describing what a meaningful placement should feel like.
Watch the toolkit videos here
The toolkit is supported by four short films. Together they provide a simple narrative introduction to work experience in the creative industries and what matters most. Although they are primarily aimed at students, they also include useful insights for parents and carers, schools and hosts.
Suggested watch order:
The Research
Get Ready With Me
The Best Shot, Ruined!
Dos and Don’ts
The Research
Get Ready With Me
The Best Shot, Ruined
Dos and Don’ts
Download Your Workbook
Each audience is supported with a workbook containing practical prompts, checklists and guidance to help plan, deliver and reflect on work experience.
