What kind of providers are you looking for?
- We want a wide range of placements that's a mixture of onsite, online, and hybrid (mix of remote and in-person)
- We'd love to hear from all types of creative and cultural freelancers and organisation - especially in fashion, TV, film, music, theatre, and games
- We want each placement to be an eye-opening taster for your industry. Great work experience tasks are varied, informative, challenging and fun!
- We want to cater to a wider range of our Young Talent’s backgrounds
- especially if it's paid and longer than 5 days
- We'd love to get on-site work experience placements in Manchester and Merseyside
- it would be wicked if we got more online work experience placements for our Young Community members who don’t live in our programme areas of London, Brighton, Manchester, or Merseyside
Why do you offer work experience for a minimum of 5 days only?
We'd love to offer longer work experience placements, but we believe that it is unfair to expect a young person to work for free for any longer than 5 days. We do understand that it is challenging for our budgets. But the rising cost of living extends to young people too. Not all of our young people are in education and/or live at home or have financial stability.
The timeline
Throughout the process, we provide support and have regular check-in points with our placement providers and applicants.
In early spring, we recruit for freelancers and organisations. You will need to fill out our submissions form which asks for information about the placement.
It is not an expression of interest form as we ask for relevant paperwork and confirmed dates.
By the end of spring, we will complete reviewing everyone’s documents and will confirm the list of our summer work experience providers.
We open up applications for our Young Talent at the beginning of summer. We only advertise work experience to our Young Talent via the monthly newsletter they receive through us.
We ask them to write a personal statement on why they would be suitable for a placement.
Our Community team will select candidates for each placement. Providers will be sent the personal statement of the successful candidate(s). They may raise questions especially if they do not believe it is a good match and we are happy to discuss.
Please note that we do not give all providers access to every application that has been made to their placement. This is because we have multiple providers and young people to liaise with. We try to narrow the window of time the young person has in not knowing which placement they've received.
If you would like to have a stronger say in the recruitment, we recommend offering a paid placement outside of our summer programme. This is because our Community team will have more capacity to facilitate this.
By June, we confirm with placement providers and successful candidates their availability for an informal interview.
Once the date and timing of the interview is confirmed, we will introduce you over email.
The informal interview is facilitated by a staff member and it lasts no longer than 30 minutes. It is an opportunity to get to know one another and ask questions so that the placement is as tailored as possible.
The placement takes place.
At the end of each placement, our Community team will contact you for feedback. It is important that you complete this survey as it is the mechanism where we record your reference for the young person you take on.
What happens at the end of the placement?
We ask that you schedule a final check-in/debrief session towards the end of your placement with the young person.
After the placement, Arts Emergency will email you a placement report for you to complete. It includes a section where you can provide a character reference.
Budget
Do we have to pay for expenses?
If you are hosting a 5 days online placement, you do not have to provide expenses.
If you are hosting a 5 days hybrid or onsite placement, you are expected to cover lunch and travel expenses. The minimum all organisations should provide is a total of £75 in expenses (this is based on £15 per day)
What happens if I want to host a work experience placement longer than 5 days?
If there's any work experience placements (including online) which last longer than 5 days, they must be paid at the real Living Wage rate.
While the UK government's statutory National Living Wage covers people over 23, Arts Emergency believes that organisations should pay the real Living Wage. This is in our Organisation Code of Conduct which all work experience placement providers must sign to deliver work experience with Arts Emergency.
With paid work experience placements, do you expect us to pay Living Wage for young people aged under 18?
Yes. This is particularly important for the young people we work with as we prioritise those who need Arts Emergency support the most. You can find out more information about our eligibility criteria here.
With paid placements, providing expenses on top of the Living Wage is optional.
For help calculating the cost of a placement please use our work placement calculator below.
What do you expect from all work experience providers?
to sign and adhere to our code of conduct
provide a 5 day placement as a minimum. We ask that anything longer is paid at the Living Wage for your area.
fill out our relevant risk assessment templates
you must read our safety guidance
have an informal interview with the young person
What are the additional expectations from hybrid and on-site work experience providers?
Providers must be located in either London, Brighton, Manchester or Merseyside.
Providers must provide expenses for up to £15 a day to cover lunch and travel.
Providers must send us your Employer’s Liability Insurance certificate (you will need to find this before you fill in the form)
Important documents you’ll need:
- Work experience guidance pack: Contains all the information you might need for running work experience. (Large text version of the guidance pack available).
- On-site risk assessment template: A template for you to fill out and send to us if you are running an on-site placement.
- Online risk assessment template: A template for you to fill out and send to us if you are running an online work experience placement.
- Hybrid risk assessment template A template for you to fill out and send to us if you are running a hybrid work experience placement.
- Organisation Code of Conduct: You must read and agree to this code before you offer us a work placement. (Large text version of the Code of Conduct available)
Need to contact us?
Please get in touch with the Community team at community@arts-emergency.org