Explainer: How Unifrog helps you deliver Modern Work Experience and Equalex

*** NEW ON UNIFROG FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 25-26 ***

• Placements contacts database
  We've just put live what we believe to be the UK's biggest database of employers who are up for hosting work experience - it's included in our Placements tool (check out the guide here)
• Careers Year Plan that meets in full the Equalex framework
  Unifrog's plug-and-play, spiral curriculum is mapped to and comprehensively meets the Equalex framework (find the Careers Year Plan here)
• Tracking hours of experiences of work
  We're adding hours tracking for experiences of work so you can be sure students meet the 2 week requirement

IN A NUTSHELL

Unifrog helps with planning, coordinating, delivering and recording modern WEX, and fully meeting the Equalex framework. In this guide we explain how (for ease, find the Statutory guidance here and info from the CEC about Equalex here).
 
 

WHAT IS ‘MODERN’ WORK EXPERIENCE?

In May 2025 the government published Statutory Guidance for work experience. The Guidance says that schools need to deliver ‘modern work experience’, which it defines as experiences of work that:

• are underpinned by learning outcomes which the CEC have translated into the Equalex framework,
• are part of a whole school/college plan, and take place over time,
• involve two-way interaction between the student and the employer,
• relate to a student’s own interests and talents,
• take into account future career opportunities in the local and national economy,
• go beyond friends and family,
• are mostly in person. Virtual experiences should mainly be thought of as adding value, for example in preparing students for in person experiences. 
  
   

WHAT IS THE GUARANTEE OF TWO WEEKS OF WORK EXPERIENCE?

The Guidance explains that the government wants every student to have the following two things (both fulfilling the characteristics of ’modern work experience’ detailed above):

• 1 week work experience activities in years 7-9. This can be traditional placements, but also things like visits to a workplace or a workshop on work skills.
   
• 1 week work experience placement in years 10-11. Traditional placements. These should be in person, though hybrid and virtual can be used if absolutely necessary. They don’t have to be done in single blocks. 

The Guidance talks about 2 weeks of work experience, and also says that it’s important for schools to track the number of hours. They don’t specify how many hours add up to the 2 weeks, but many people are saying that schools should be aiming for 50 hours. 

HOW DOES UNIFROG HELP US MEET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 2 WEEKS OF WEX, AND EQUALEX?

• Comprehensive Year Plan fully delivers the Equalex learning objectives
  
  Currently: The Unifrog Careers Year Plan is a comprehensive lesson pack to help you deliver outstanding careers education to students aged 11 to 18, including preparing students for work experience and the world of work. It is a spiral curriculum, featuring lessons to support use of psychometric testing, ‘quick tasks’ to help students use platform tools, and applications lessons for pathways beyond school/college. The Year Plan is mapped against the Equalex learning objectives (please see the bottom of this guide), so you can clearly see which lessons help you achieve each learning objective.
   
• Further guides, teaching resources, experiences of work activities, and Unifrog courses
  
  Currently: In addition to the CYP, we have tonnes of high quality materials that also support you to meet the Equalex framework. For example:
  • Expert guides: ‘How to deliver a successful WEX programme’ guide for Placement coordinators at schools.
  • Teaching resources: Work experience lesson series.
  • Resources for KS3 appropriate experiences of work: Plug-and-play experiences of work you can run at your school.
  • Unifrog courses: 'Get work experience ready' course co-created with Lloyds Banking Group and available for all year groups, and 'Careers in...' courses, giving students in Year 7+ a flavour of what it's like to work in a particular sector, like conservation, art, or medicine.
  • WEX reflection resources: 'Work experience journal', 'Reflecting on virtual work experience', and 'Careers fair worksheet' workbooks to help students of all ages reflect on work experience activities.
     
• Recording and tracking hours
   
  • Currently: On Unifrog’s Activities tool, students in all year groups can record their experiences of work. On our Interactions tool, teachers record experiences of work provided for their students. Everything that has been recorded can be tracked via charts and dashboards.
  • Currently: When students have organised WEX using the Unifrog Placements tool, teachers can bulk convert these to interactions (with all the right data points automatically completed).
  • Soon: We will allow recording of hours for activities and interactions, and create a view that combines relevant activities and interactions to keep track of total hours.
     
• Recording and tracking outcomes
   
  • Currently: The Placements tool makes it easy for placement coordinators to assign learning goals for each placement, and the tool matches the language of the Equalex learning objectives.
  • Currently: The Placements, Activities, and Interactions tools encourage students to reflect on what they have learnt through doing the activities in question.
  • Soon: When the CEC have finalised their updated activity types, we will ensure our Compass+ download matches the new framework, and we will also integrate with their API once that is live.
     
• Administering in-person and virtual WEX
   
  • Currently: Our Placements tool for Key Stages 3 to 5 makes it easy to deliver in-person and virtual WEX. It’s a series of forms that efficiently collates the necessary information and permissions to do with health and safety, risk assessments, insurance, safeguarding, and GDPR compliance.
  • Currently: We provide employers with extensive best-practice materials for delivering successful placements, covering everything from safeguarding to how to help students relate their classroom work to the workplace.
  • Soon: We will provide guidance to help students think about which Equalex learning objectives they want to focus on in their placements, and also after each experience, reflect on which Equalex learning objectives they have met.
  • Soon: We will make live a version of our Placements tool which will facilitate work experiences for KS3 – for example for ‘Take your child to work’ days.
  • Soon: We will add hours-tracking to our placements tool, which will automatically transfer to interactions when placements are converted.
     
• Finding placements 
   
  • Our new Placements contacts database 
    
    Currently: We have just launched the UK’s biggest database of employers who are up for hosting students on WEX: 60,000+ strong and growing every day, it’s available to all schools using the Unifrog Placements tool. Here's the guide to this new tool.
    
    Contacts are asked if they are open to hosting the following types of experience: in-person, in-person over 20 days, and virtual, as well as apprenticeships and ‘other opportunities’ like assemblies.
     
  • On demand VWEX and VWEX week in the Unifrog courses tool
    
    Currently: For KS4 and KS5, we partner with some of the UK’s leading employers like the NHS, the BBC, EDF Energy, and Tesco to co-create meaningful virtual work experiences, both on-demand in Unifrog’s Courses tool, and live via Unifrog’s popular annual Virtual Work Experience (VWEX) Week. During the 2025-26 academic year, we will be making live more virtual work experiences covering a broad range of sectors.
    
    With an average student rating of 4.3 out of 5 and almost 50,000 course starts, our VWEX programmes are consistently praised by students for giving a realistic insight into diverse careers and for engaging, interactive activities that build transferable skills. As one learner put it, “It opened my eyes to possible career choices.”
    
    Soon: VWEX for KS3. 
     
• Matching experiences to students’ interests, and taking into account local and national economy
  
  Currently: Modern WEX requires that students do experiences after having been inspired about the possibilities that are open to them, having reflected on their own interests, and having taken into account economic growth areas. The wider Unifrog platform helps by providing:
   
  • Psychometric testing: We have a comprehensive suite of quizzes letting students explore their interests, the work environments they prefer, and the skills they have, linking these to careers and subjects.
     
  • LMI: Interactive LMI widgets in our Subjects library and Careers library mean students can use local and national labour market information to inform their education and career choices.
     
  • Hundreds of career profiles: Created in partnership with leading employers, and featuring videos of people talking about their careers and showing what their jobs entail.
    
     

WHEN DOES THE GUIDANCE COME INTO EFFECT?

From September 2025, schools and colleges need to show how they are preparing to deliver it.
 
 

WHAT ARE SCHOOLS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING NOW?

Right now schools and colleges are supposed to be: 

• Identifying gaps in provision
  • Assess whether your students currently do two weeks of modern WEX across KS3 and KS4 (do enough activities happen, and are they all meaningful?).
  • Map the Equalex learning objectives against the whole school CEIAG plan (are there any gaps?).
     
• Planning to fill the gaps identified
  If you identify gaps in their provision, plan activities that will fill the gaps.
   
• Identifying how to track provision at an individual level
  The guarantee of 2 weeks of modern WEX and the Equalex learning objectives are for all students. You therefore need to track provision at an individual level.
  
   

WHAT IS EQUALEX?

Equalex is being developed by the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC). While the Statutory Guidance says what schools need to deliver, Equalex provides a framework for how to deliver the guidance. Equalex isn’t a ‘how to guide’ – it’s more like the Gatsby Benchmarks for work experience – it explains what ‘good’ looks like.

Equalex is organised into three main themes (Introduce & Inspire, Investigate & Explore, Apply & Demonstrate), and then into outcomes, and then into objectives. These have been developed from the CDI Framework. 

WHAT SHOULD WE DELIVER AND WHEN?

The CEC says that it doesn’t want to tell schools and colleges how to implement Equalex, but it does suggest that the three themes are to an extent chronological, and that they imagine them being delivered like this:They say that they expect the first theme to be covered with more and lighter experiences, and the third to be covered with fewer and deeper ones (with the second one in the middle!).

WHAT ARE THE EQUALEX LEARNING OUTCOMES AND OBJECTIVES?

This table shows: 

• How each theme translates into learning outcomes, and how each learning outcome translates into learning objectives.
   
• The Unifrog teaching resources in the Unifrog Careers Year Plan that meet each learning objective. Delivering the year plan means you will fully cover the learning objectives.

>>>> Find the Careers Year Plan here on the start page of the Resources library.