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This chapter addresses the difficulties faced by many UK secondary school students in securing meaningful workplace experience in a medical context and which specifically explores job shadowing as an option for resolving this problem. It focuses on the problem identified in the study: inequitable access to periods of work experience of value in progression to highly selective courses of study at elite universities. The chapter seeks to add to a growing literature exploring the issue of equity in employer engagement in education. It reveals a situation whereby links between secondary school students and employees within the National Health Service (NHS) are numerous but are clearly patterned by social relationships which are rooted in social class. In the medical profession, imbalance in the distribution of social capital is compounded by more structural educational inequality, such as universities offering places only to students with demonstrable workplace experience.

Abstract from publisher's website.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.717. Show less

Guest speakers are one key lever among many that schools use to inspire young people about possible futures and what it might take to reach them, as well as broaden students' horizons to see the world outside of their classroom and local community. This report draws on surveys of state schools and colleges from the networks of Education and Employers and Speakers for Schools, surveys with their students, and an interview program with independent schools to understand why teachers who invite guest speakers to give talks keep doing it, how teachers source speakers and run the talks, and how talks relate to changes in attitudes in young people. The research found: (1) the vast majority of young people are positive about the benefits from talks; (2) young people were particularly positive about the talks having helped them understand that everyone had to overcome setbacks; (3) a program of talks can also reduce the number of students feeling their background holds them back, from a significant minority to barely a handful and; (4) 'Free School Meal' (FSM) students typically benefitted more than non-FSM students, positioning talks as an effective tool particularly in schools with higher disadvantage.

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less