Why are people hacking their LinkedIn profiles?
Speakers for Schools
Empowering young people from state schools & colleges to reach their potential.
Your teenage years may seem like a distant memory, but chances are if you’re over 27 and grew up in England, you’ll remember doing work experience.
Many of us have a tale or two from our first ventures into the workplace, from making cups of tea to falling asleep in full view of the bosses. Although we may joke about the sort of work experience on offer back then, the kicker is that these days, not everyone gets to do it.
Indeed, our recent research has revealed that, in the last decade, there has been a declining trend in access to work experience, which has serious implications for social mobility and the UK economy.?
Introducing our Work Experience for All campaign
Speakers for Schools believes that high-quality work experience should be a universal right for every young person, regardless of their starting point in life or geographical location.?
Through our Work Experience for All campaign, we are calling on all political parties to ensure that every young person in England completes at least two work experience placements before the age of 18.?
Famous faces getting behind the campaign include ITV’s political editor Robert Peston (our charity’s founder), business gurus Mary Portas and Deborah Meaden, chef Tom Kerridge, comedian Guz Khan, doctor and TV presenter Dr. Chris Van Tulleken, TV presenter Steph McGovern and a host of other celebrities who have pledged their support for the campaign and shared their own work experience stories.
So how does this relate to what you’re seeing on LinkedIn?
To help raise awareness for the campaign, we’ve asked celebrities, influencers, our network of employers, and those affiliated with the campaign to take part in a LinkedIn takeover to share their work experience stories and raise awareness for the campaign. We’d also love for you to join in too!
What is your work experience story??
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Show your support by changing your LinkedIn profile to a photo of your 16-year-old self, updating your job title and adding our special campaign banner to your background photo. Even if you only do it for a week, it will encourage others in your network to follow suit and help spread the word!
Why is work experience so important?
Last year, Speakers for Schools commissioned YouGov to carry out an independent survey of 2,098 young people aged 18 to 30 to recall their experiences of work experience while in education. Careful analysis of the data provided by this survey revealed:
? Doing work experience raises future salary
For each additional type of work experience done, future annual earnings increase by ￡1,088
? Work experience improves employability
Attending work experience reduces the chances of a young person becoming Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) from 11 to 7%
Our findings also show that access to work experience is currently neither universal nor fair.?
In fact, our research revealed that 66% of young people can’t recall doing any work experience between the ages of 16-18, and privately educated students are twice as likely to do multiple placements as state school students.
This puts young people who cannot access work experience at a clear disadvantage versus those that can and represents a growing problem for employers who are looking to recruit a diverse future workforce who meet their skill requirements.