Supporting industry placement students with special educational needs and disabilities

Industry placements can provide students with special educational needs and disabilities (sometimes known as SEND) valuable workplace experience. With the right support in place, many employers find these placements work just as well as any other.

Support for employers

Your role as an employer is to provide a safe, supportive workplace.  The college or school will guide and support you with any additional adjustments.

For example, the school or college could advise on tailoring a placement role to suit the talents of a particular individual. It might mean re-thinking parts of the role, so that students can learn, develop and demonstrate the skills, knowledge and behaviour in the way that suits them best.

How providers can help

You can talk to your school or college about the help they can give you with any potential, extra support that students might need in their placement.

This could include:

• travel to and from the workplace
• special equipment or adaptations such as computer apps or programmes designed to provide specific support, ensuring information is available in an accessible format
• an independent mentor
• a job coach for students with more complex needs, providing full-time supervision to help them become more confident and proficient at work
• suggesting changes to work patterns or timing
• support from the student’s parents or carers

Support will be tailored to the individual student – not all of this will apply in every case.  Providers will talk through what’s appropriate and help you feel confident supporting the student day to day.

The school or college will carry out risk assessments and health and safety checks, with the individual student’s needs in mind. They will also help with the important early days of the placement, to ensure that the student settles well and that you as the employer feel supported.

Adjustments can be reviewed and adapted as the placement progresses.

Case study

An employer based in the Midlands provided an industry placement for a student with learning difficulties.

During the planning and set up stage of the placement, the employer and provider (together with the student and their family) discussed the placement in detail, especially what might make the placement harder.

Together they were able to identify potential issues in advance, and put support in place early. The significant barrier was identified as not being confident to attend work for the first time.

Measures were put in place to support the transition to the workplace, through:

• visits to the employer prior to the placement to increase familiarity and confidence
• the student being accompanied by members of the provider team in the early stages of the placement, their presence becoming less over time
• the student's first few days being part time, slowly building up the hours
• an allocated workplace mentor to work alongside the student, especially in the early days of the placement

Within a little over a week, the student’s confidence was such that they were able to attend full time, knowing that they were fully supported through access to their workplace mentor when they felt that they needed support.

More information

Find out more about supporting people with specific special education needs or disabilities on GOV.UK.