Work experience checklist

Whilst offering work experience placements can be a useful recruitment tool, it can also present safety risks due to a youngster’s lack of awareness. So combat this by introducing a checklist.

Work experience

Work experience students and young workers under the age of 18 years, enjoy specific protection under Regulation 19 of the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (as amended). This is partly due to the fact that their age and corresponding lack of safety awareness means that they could be involved in more accidents. For this reason, we have created a Work Experience Checklist to help ensure that you’ve covered the most important fire and safety issues before they start work with you.

Using the checklist

For ease of use, this checklist is divided into two main sections. The first looks at general issues, such as whether you’ve provided a tour of your workplace and explained if there are any areas that are to remain out-of-bounds to the student/young worker and why. It also looks at whether you’ve carried out a risk assessment and provided any PPE deemed necessary. The second section looks at fire safety and ensures that you’ve given an overview of how it’s managed, e.g. your fire evacuation procedures. There’s also room for the student to sign to say that they’ve understood the checklist contents. It should be kept for at least the duration of the work experience placement.