Work Experience Hosts
This site aims to create a repository of companies and small businesses that are willing to facilitate work experience for students with SEND.
If you would like your business to be listed here, please email leanne.connolly@dcu.ie
Supports for Hosts
We understand that supporting a student with a special educational need or disability might be a new experience for your workplace. We have provided some ideas to help you to get started:
- Tasks/Role Description: Outline a list of tasks that may be suitable for potential students. It would be very useful to identify tasks that are quieter or back-of-house tasks and those that might be customer-facing. This will help the school/parent/student to identify which aspects of the role they might be best suited to. See an example of a template you could use in Appendix 1 on the Work Experience Tab.
- Time: Identify times of the day/week that may be quieter in the setting. It may be best to avoid times that are particularly fast paced/loud/overwhelming. For example, for a service station, it may be a lunchtime rush at the deli counter, the morning coffee rush, days where there are more deliveries than usual. Identifying quieter times may help the school and the student with scheduling.
- Schedule: Hosts are encouraged to be flexible in supporting students in accessing suitable working hours. Within the context of the Department of Education Transition Year Programme Statement (2025), placements of between two to four weeks are recommended. However, special schools/classes may find it more beneficial to establish work experience on a one day per week basis. For some students, this may be a full working day, for other students, work experience may be in more manageable time periods, for example, one hour per week.
- Point of Contact: Identify a lead point of contact to liaise with school staff. Sometimes this may be someone whose role is human resources. It will be equally important to identify a key worker who the student will be able to liaise with during the hours of their work experience.
- Visual Supports: Consider what visual supports might be useful to highlight to the student. You may already have visual merchandising supports for your employees to assist with tasks such as table settings or restocking of items. These would be particularly useful for students with SEND.
- Comfort: Consider a safe and calm space where the student might access a break. Ensure clarity of how long is allotted for breaktime and consider providing a visual reminder such as setting a phone alarm for additional clarification. Additionally ensure the student is aware of the location of the staff toilets.
- Safety & Security: Share any safety information with the student, for example, fire drill procedures. See an example of a template that could be adapted in your setting in Appendix 7.