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<p>The careers statutory guidance makes it clear that schools and colleges should
offer every young person at least one experience of a workplace by age 16 and a further
experience by age 18, in line with Gatsby Benchmark 6.</p><p>The department funds
the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) to support schools and colleges to provide
high quality experiences of workplaces. The CEC undertake targeted work with employers
to stimulate employer engagement that will support young people with special educational
needs and disabilities. The department will continue to make the case for employers
to provide work experience for young people with special educational needs.</p><p>For
young people aged 16 to 24 with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, the department
offers Supported Internships which are personalised study programmes, specifically
designed to help young people to prepare for and transition into sustained, paid employment.</p><p>In
February 2022, the department announced that it is providing funding of up to £18 million over the next
three years to build capacity in the Supported Internships programme. The aim is to
double the number of Supported Internships to give more young people with an EHC plan
the skills to secure and sustain paid employment.</p><p>As part of this funding, the
department has a contract with the Internships Work consortium, led by the National
Development Team for Inclusion, to deliver activities to expand and improve Supported
Internships provision across the country.</p><p>The Internships Work consortium will
be working closely with local authorities to double the number of Supported Internships
per year by 2025 and will engage with all partners in the system to level up the quality
of internships across the country. Over 700 job coaches will be trained by 2025 to
ensure interns receive high quality support on their work placements.</p><p>Finally,
in the Spring Budget 2023, the Chancellor announced up to £3 million to pilot extending
Supported Internship to young people without EHC plans. Through this pilot, the department
will seek to establish whether the Supported Internship model is an effective approach
for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities but without an EHC plan.
The department will identify the benefits and challenges of using the Supported Internship
model to support this cohort and use learning from the pilot to consider if and how
the approach could be rolled out more widely.</p>
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