Starting in September 2026, schools will change how they handle work experience. The Department for Education updated its careers guidance on 23 June 2026, outlining the Government’s work experience guarantee: students in Years 7 to 9 will do a week of work experience activities, and those in Years 10 and 11 will have a week of real placements. This is not law yet, but schools should start planning for it, and Ofsted will check progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks during inspections.
There’s something important people don’t always mention: this guarantee increases Demand for placements, but doesn’t create more of them. Your careers lead now has to find spots for the whole year group, and engineering placements are some of the hardest to get because of safety paperwork in workshops, labs, and sites. If you wait for someone to assign you a placement, you’ll likely end up with whatever is left.
This guide is here to help you take action instead of waiting. It covers which national schemes are available and when they open, how to contact a local engineering firm even if you don’t know anyone there, what to ask for once you’re on placement, and how to make your five days count for university or apprenticeship applications. All the schemes listed were checked in August 2026.
The national schemes worth knowing about
These are free or low-cost, run at scale, and open to applications from students rather than only through schools.
| Scheme | Who it is for | Cost | When to apply
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Futures For All (formerly Speakers for Schools) | 14 to 19, state schools and colleges | Free | Rolling, opportunities listed year-round |
| In2STEM (In2scienceUK) | Year 12 / S5 to S6, socioeconomic criteria apply | Free, plus travel and lunch bursary | Opens December, closes early April |
| EDT Bronze Routes into STEM | Year 9 to 10 / S3 to S4 | Some fully funded, otherwise £190 | Through school or direct, courses run year-round |
| EDT Silver Routes into STEM 16+ | 16 and over | Varies by course | Direct application |
| Springpod virtual placements | Roughly 13 and over | Free | On Demand |
Futures For All is the one to look at first. Speakers for Schools rebranded, and the work experience side now runs at futuresforall.org with a searchable Work Experience Finder. Placements are fully funded, run in person, remotely or as a hybrid, and range from one-day insight sessions to five-day placements. You register yourself, apply for what interests you, and a teacher confirms you can attend. Where places are limited, the employer picks from the applicant list, but plenty of opportunities take everyone who applies.
In2STEM is the pick if you are in Year 12 and your family background meets its widening-participation criteria. The 2026 programme ran from 20 July to 21 August, placing students in real university labs and industry settings for one to two weeks, with online employability workshops alongside. It costs nothing and pays a bursary for travel and lunch. Applications for 2026 have closed, but the cycle is predictable, so check the In2STEM page in December for the 2027 round, which will close in early April. In2scienceUK has supported 5,350 students on the programme to date.
EDT, the Engineering Development Trust, is the biggest structured provider and the one whose branding has shifted most. Everything now sits under the Industrial Cadets awards, so programme names an older sibling might remember have moved. Headstart-style university experiences are now Silver Insight into University, a four- or five-night residential costing £475 to £595, with bursary places available. For Year 9 and 10, Bronze Routes into STEM is three days, one each at a college, a university and a company; some courses are fully funded, and others are £190. Year in Industry paid placements still run, but they target the gap year between school and university, not Year 10. Full list at etrust.org.uk/individuals.
What the big employers actually offer
Rolls-Royce runs the most transparent school-age programme in UK engineering, called Discover. The in-person strand, Discover: Behind-the-Scenes, is four days on site, and the 2026 dates are published for Derby, Solihull, Bristol and Inchinnan, with specific weeks ring-fenced for Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13 separately. Applications open and close throughout the year rather than in one window, so join the talent pool to be told when. There is a small travel bursary but no accommodation support, so apply to the site you can reach. See careers.rolls-royce.com. The virtual strand, Discover: On Demand, is free and open now at rolls-royce.springpod.com.
BAE Systems runs week-long summer placements for 14 to 18-year-olds, including in-person site placements and a virtual programme aimed at girls, with completion earning an Industrial Cadets Silver Award. In 2026, applications opened in March and closed in late April or early May for June and July placements. BAE closes applications at least eight weeks before a placement starts, and sooner once it has enough. Apply early via jobs.baesystems.com.
Network Rail no longer runs a school-age summer placement scheme in the way it once did. It runs Work Experience Insight Days and employability sessions, listed on its students page, plus a virtual programme through Springpod that can fast-track you to an in-person experience. If someone tells you Network Rail does two-week Year 10 placements, that is out of date.
JLR has moved its school-age offer online. Drive Your Future is a free on-demand virtual programme for students aged 13 and over, delivered with Springpod. JLR apprenticeships typically go live in February for a September start.
Does virtual work experience count?
Virtual placements are helpful in some ways. They give you industry knowledge, a certificate, and something specific to mention later. However, they don’t give you hands-on experience or a personal connection with an engineer. Springpod offers free engineering programs from employers and professional bodies, including an IChemE sustainability program available from May 2026 to April 2027, and it’s worth trying. Think of virtual placements as a starting point. Do one in Year 10 to find out which area of engineering you like, then aim for an in-person placement in Year 12.
Approaching a local firm when you know nobody
In the UK, most engineering work experience is sadly set up through family connections, making it more difficult if you don’t already know people working in the industry. If you don’t have that option, reaching out directly to companies works better than you might think, since students rarely approach small and medium firms.
Begin by looking for companies close to where you live, like those on the local trading estate rather than big national firms. Search for businesses involved in precision machining, civil or structural consultancy, building services, water, control panels, or motorsport (especially if you’re near the Midlands). Use Companies House and LinkedIn to find out who manages these firms. Try to contact a specific person, such as an engineering manager or director, instead of sending your email to a general address.
Next, write a brief email. Keep it short; if a manager sees a long message from a student, they’ll probably put it aside and forget about it.
Subject: Year 12 student, work experience request, week of 13 July
Dear Ms Okafor,
I am in Year 12 at Longfield Academy studying maths, physics and product design, and I am applying for mechanical engineering apprenticeships in 2027.
I saw that Harlow Precision does five-axis machining for aerospace. Would you consider hosting me for a week of work experience? I am free from 13 July; I can get to you on the 42 bus, and I am happy to do whatever is useful, including tidying and paperwork.
My school can provide the placement agreement and the risk assessment, and my careers lead is Mr Ahmed ([email protected]).
Thank you for reading this.
Priya Raman
Three things make this email effective. It mentions the company by name, so it doesn’t look like a mass email. It reassures the employer by giving the school contact. And it shows you’re willing to help with any tasks, which tells them you understand what starting is really like.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a reply right away. Send your email to about twenty companies, follow up once after ten days, and don’t take silence personally. If a company hesitates, it’s usually because of insurance worries. The good news is that most employers’ liability insurance already covers work experience students if the insurer is part of the Association of British Insurers or Lloyd’s, so no extra policy or premium is usually needed. The employer needs to update their risk assessment for a young person. Your school can provide the necessary paperwork, and the DfE’s guidance helps clear up this common myth.
What to ask to do once you are there
The difference between a wasted week and a useful one is roughly four questions, asked on day one.
- Ask to sit in on a real meeting, whatever it is: a design review, a site progress call, a supplier problem. Watching engineers disagree with each other teaches more than any tour.
- Ask what problem the team is currently stuck on, and ask again on your last day what happened. That gives you a story with a beginning and an end.
- Ask one person to walk you through their route in. You will collect apprenticeship and degree routes you did not know existed, straight from people who took them.
- Ask to be given something small that is genuinely yours, measuring a batch, tidying a drawing register, testing something repeatedly. Owning a small real task beats shadowing ten big ones.
Write a brief note each day. Just three lines: what you did, what surprised you, and what you’d ask if you had more time. You’ll forget the details after a year and a half, but that’s exactly when you’ll need to remember them.
Writing it up for UCAS or an apprenticeship
The rules changed here too, and it works in your favour. Since 2026 entry, the UCAS personal statement is no longer one free-text essay. It is three structured questions within a 4,000-character total, minimum 350 characters each. Question three asks what you have done to prepare outside of education and why it was useful. That question was practically written for a work placement.
Answer this question like an engineer. Instead of saying, “I gained valuable insight into the industry,” which is vague, try something like, “I spent a week at a precision machining firm and saw a part fail inspection twice because of thermal expansion in the fixture. That experience made me want to study manufacturing instead of general mechanical engineering.” Be specific, explain the cause and effect, and show you were paying attention.
For apprenticeship applications, the emphasis shifts slightly towards reliability and behaviour. Employers are choosing someone to spend four years training. Name what you did, name what you were trusted with, and name the thing you got wrong and corrected.
What to actually do, by year group
Year 9 and 10. Do a free virtual placement to narrow down which branch of engineering appeals. Register on the Futures For All finder. If your school offers EDT Bronze Routes into STEM, take it, and ask about bursary places if the £190 is a problem. Start a list of engineering firms within an hour of home.
Year 10, spring. Apply to Rolls-Royce Discover: Behind-the-Scenes for a Year 10 week, and email ten local firms for your school’s placement week. Do both, because national schemes are competitive.
Year 11 to Year 12 transition. Watch for BAE applications in March and In2STEM in December if you are eligible. Both close months before the placements run.
Year 12. The year that counts for applications. Aim for one substantial in-person placement and keep the daily notes. If your school’s placement week does not suit an employer, ask about the summer instead.
Year 13. Consider EDT’s Year in Industry paid placements if a gap year appeals, and use everything you gathered in the UCAS third question.
One last thing to make clear: EngineeringUK says the UK needs over 173,000 new engineers and technicians each year until 2030, and in 2025, 76% of engineering employers said they struggled to find skilled people. Companies want students like you, they just haven’t been asked directly very often.
More from us on the routes themselves: our guide to vocational qualifications in engineering, our parents’ guide to engineering opportunities, and our guide to engineering clubs, events and residential courses.