BackExplainer: What employers need to know about the placements forms

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Here's what employers need to know about the Unifrog Placements tool.

What is the Placements tool?

The Unifrog Placements tool is a series of forms that help schools and colleges manage the admin for work experience. 

To organise one placement there are seven forms in total, with each one needing to be filled in consecutively (except for the Employer review form and the Student reflection form, which can be completed in any order after the placement ends):

1. Student initial form
2. Employer initial form
3. Parent/guardian agreement
4. Permission
5. Check-in
6. Employer review
7. Student reflection

Once one person completes their form, the next person in the process is automatically notified by email.

Employers who are hosting placements via the Unifrog Placements tool don't have their own Unifrog login. Their job is just to fill in the Employer initial form ahead of the placement, and the Employer review form after it, both of which they receive by email.

Our best practice guides for everything to do with Placements can be accessed by anyone here (no Unifrog login needed): https://www.unifrog.org/placement/guides

 

How does the process start?

Normally the process begins with the student agreeing with the employer for the placement to happen. 

Once the employer has agreed to host the placement, the student logs the placement on Unifrog by filling in the Student initial form.

Once the student has done this, the employer is automatically sent an email, inviting them to complete the Employer initial form. The email includes a direct link to the form.

 

The Employer initial form

In a nutshell

The Employer initial form asks the employer details about the placement. It includes asking questions recommended by the Health & Safety Executive, and by the Keeping Children Safe in Education Statutory Guidance. 

This includes asking:

• Whether the employer has Employers' liability insurance
   
• Whether the employer has a Risk Assessment and Health & Safety policy

Employers' liability insurance

If the employer has Employers' liability insurance, the form asks them to upload a copy of the insurance certificate. 

If the insurance expires before the placement ends, the platform will ask the employer to upload the new certificate when the existing one expires, and the system will automatically send them a reminder just before the insurance expires.

If the employer is exempt from needing Employers' liability insurance (for example, the NHS), they can confirm this instead.

Risk Assessment and Health & Safety policy

If the student has shared in the Student initial form that they have special needs or an illness that might affect the placement, or if the employer has said that the workplace has higher than normal risks, or if the employer has said they've never hosted a placement before, the employer will also need to upload a Health & Safety policy and Risk Assessment.

Nb: If the employer has fewer than five employees, legally they don’t usually need written versions of their Risk Assessment or Health & Safety policy, but in the case of any of the 3 scenarios above, we ask even these employers to upload these documents.

Problems loading documents

If the employer has problems uploading documents into the Employer initial form, they can use the ‘Problem uploading’ function to explain why. It necessary, they can then email the relevant documents to the placement coordinator.

Remembering what an employer last entered in the Employer initial form

If an employer has completed an Employer initial form within the last 540 days, the system remembers what they last entered into the form, including any documents they previously uploaded. They can choose to edit this information, and replace the remembered documents. 

More details about the legals and documents needed for placements

For more information on safeguarding and the legals behind placements, see our guide Placements: the legals explained. This guide includes templates for Risk Assessments and Health & Safety policies.

What happens after the Employer initial form is completed?

• Before the placement

Once the employer submits the Employer initial form:

• The parent completes the Parent/guardian agreement, and then 
   
• The Placement coordinator completes the Permission form.

When these forms are finished, the student, the parent/guardian, the placement coordinator and the employer receive an automated email confirming that the placement is going ahead!

The system also emails each party a reminder 7 days before the placement start date.
 

• After the placement

  After the placement ends, the employer receives another email, asking them to complete the Employer review form. 
  
  The Employer review form lets the employer share feedback about the placement. The student and placement coordinator can see the feedback that the employer gives in this form but the parent/guardian cannot.
  
  In this form the employer is also asked if they'd like to join Unifrog's Placements contacts database. This is a Unifrog-wide database of people who are interested in hosting students for:

  • In person work placements
     
  • In person work placements lasting 20 days or more
     
  • Virtual placements
     
  • Apprenticeships
     
  • Other opportunities (like assemblies or mentoring)

  
  There are currently more than 40,000 people in the database, with more people joining every day. Teachers can search the database and can ask the people on it if they are up for hosting work experience for their students. We make sure that employers are not inundated with requests, and employers can leave it at any time.