BackFor teachers: What is Modern work experience?
Explaining Modern work experience, Equalex, and what 'meaningful' means!
Modern work experience is here! In this guide, we break down what it is, and how Unifrog can help.
What is Modern work experience?
The term ‘Modern work experience’ comes from the UK's 2025 Statutory Guidance for work experience that aims to makes sure all young people can access multiple high-quality, progressive workplace experiences throughout their secondary education.
Modern work experience is made up of these three elements:
- The two-week guarantee
- The Equalex framework
- Gatsby Benchmark 6
It can be quite tricky to navigate what each of these are and how they fit together. Let’s take a closer look! 
What do each of these terms mean?
THE TWO-WEEK GUARANTEE
The two-week guarantee is the UK government’s ambition that students should have a minimum of two weeks’ worth of work experience by Year 11, made up of:
- At least one week of work experience activities in Years 7–9
- At least one week of placements in Years 10–11
THE EQUALEX FRAMEWORK
This is the Careers & Enterprise Company’s framework for delivering whole-school modern work experience activities.
The framework is organised around three core themes:
- Introduce and inspire – helping learners broaden their awareness of opportunities, build self-awareness, and be inspired by future possibilities.
- Investigate and explore – helping learners develop career readiness, explore roles and responsibilities, and understand growth sectors and the changing economy.
- Apply and demonstrate – helping learners apply knowledge and skills in workplace contexts, and use those experiences to inform future decisions.
Equalex is emphasises that work experience is about more than just traditional in-person work placements: it also includes activities that help learners explore opportunities, develop and demonstrate workplace skills, record their progress, and reflect on how their experiences connect to future careers.
GATSBY BENCHMARK 6 ('MEANINGFUL WORK EXPERIENCE')
Gatsby Benchmark 6 is the quality standard for ‘meaningful’ workplace experiences.
A workplace experience is ‘meaningful’ when it moves beyond passive observation. It’s defined by active engagement, where students don't just see a workplace, but actively participate in it.
To meet this standard, an experience should provide opportunities for students to:
- Interact with employers or employees
- Complete workplace-style tasks or projects
- Receive feedback on their work
- Reflect on what they have learned about jobs, skills, and workplaces
For example, rather than simply shadowing an employee, a student could be asked to support the employee in a project, interview them on how they got into the field, or contribute towards one of the employee's real tasks.
How does Unifrog help?
Unifrog can help you:
- Deliver Modern work experience via teaching resources, student tools and virtual work experience on the platform
- Evidence what you've done through the Activities and Interactions tools