Work Expereience within a Study Programme

Depends what you do with them for the week/fortnight everyone else is out on placement? Assuming they're not just sat at home and you're doing *something* with them and they are a small minority, I'd probably keep the hours (but not the WEX aim).

Then again, if hours coming off mean they're on 600 instead of 635 it's fairly meaningless? You'd want more robust evidence of what else they've been doing if it's the WEX that's keeping them in Band 5...

They also attend Vocational Qualification Lessons, Functionals Skills (if applicable) and Personal Development Classes, so they are always doing something.  Most of our Study Programme learners go to their work experience weekly for most of their time on the programme.  Always find it odd that we have EEP hours planned in and if they are not delivered ie W/Ex then will this be a problem at Audit. 

The way we always think about it is, can we evidence to an auditor that there really was a clear and achieveable plan for them to do WEX. If 95% of a cohort did WEX, and we just struggled with the remaining 5%, the plan was clearly there, and we keep the EEP hours (but you obviously can't report the WEX aim if you don't have a corresponding placement record). If only 20% of the cohort did WEX (when we claimed those hours for all of them), how can we show there was ever a realistic plan to WEX for all? In that case, we either take the hours off if it makes no material difference to band (though that does drop the average hours you've been reporting across the provider), or more commonly we insist that the teams replace those planned hours with some other work related activity, which they have to fit into the timetable. The sooner they make that decision, the easier to find the time.

The trouble is, where do you draw the line? Our judgment might differ from what an auditor thinks. Keep all evidence you have of work done to obtain the placements, as that supports keeping the hours.

The ESFA definition of Work Experience isn't limited to placements, it can be other stuff. The difference is just whether it has an aim and a placement record or not. It's all EEP at the end of the day.

Its an add on so you need to be careful that if an auditor removes the placement hours you don't drop down a banding. As long as you can prove that the work placement was planned and you have confirmation from the employer (email or a letter) then you can keep the hours. 

If a learner is good for a placement we take some from the planned enrichment or WRA activities and open up the work placement that way.