New toolkit helps employers develop work placements for SEND students

Hull-headquartered Sewell Group has launched a new SEND work experience toolkit to support other employers in providing work experience to young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

As part of its wider GATEway initiative, Sewell Group was looking to expand the number of work experience placements it could offer to local young people from a range of different backgrounds with varying needs, and over the last few years has provided multiple opportunities to young people with special educational needs.

Bethany Dennett, Sewell Group’s Community Investment Strategist, said:

“We wanted to make sure we could offer meaningful experiences to young people with SEND, as the feedback we’d received from schools was that young people were facing barriers in getting placements as employers weren’t sure how best to support them. We worked closely with St Anne’s School, an East Yorkshire school for young people with additional needs, to create a programme for a group of students to join us in placements across the business. This helped us realise the potential for providing opportunities for students with SEND.”

Fifteen-year-old Reece Macdonald is one of the students who came to do work experience on the GATEway programme. His mother, Nikki Stocks, said:

“Work experience offers young people a taster of life in their chosen field, but the opportunities for children with additional needs are limited and rarely recognised their aspirations.

“Reece’s work experience was more rewarding than we could have imagined, and as a result we have seen, and continue to see a profound change in his confidence and his belief in his abilities, his aspirations, and his value in the world.

“We are so grateful that he was able to have such a rewarding opportunity and hopefully as a result of this shared experience and the Framework, other businesses will be encouraged to get involved and support young people with additional needs in their transition to life beyond school”.

Bethany added:

“It’s been such a rewarding experience for our team, to see the young people we’ve worked with blossom in confidence. We realised what an intimidating prospect it was for many of them at first, so we wanted to create a guide for our colleagues, which we quickly realised could benefit other businesses. We created this video as a toolkit for anyone who’s considering giving placements to students with SEND.

“We know there’s a huge skills gap in the construction industry and we want to give more people the opportunity to explore careers they could go into, no matter their background or experience, and we hope this will give other businesses the confidence to give it a go.”

The toolkit includes a video that talks through the process step by step, including recognising and understanding the unique challenges SEND students may face in a work setting, familiarising students with the workplace and making sure they’re well prepared and comfortable, offering flexible support throughout their time in the workplace and providing feedback.

The SEND toolkit is available free of charge to any employers who are considering supporting SEND students with work experience placements, and the video can be accessed below:

Anyone who wants to know more about Sewell Group’s experiences with providing placements for students with SEND can contact Bethany Dennett at Bethany.dennett@sewell-group.co.uk.