Job shadowing

Strong career guidance systems allow students to explore potential futures in work through authentic and personalised interactions with people in work and their workplaces. One form of career exploration that can be expected to be of particular value to young people is job shadowing. Typically undertaken between the ages of 13 and 16, job shadowing allows students to visit workplaces to investigate their career plans through discussions with professionals working in fields of interest. This Policy Brief summarises evidence on the impact of teenage job shadowing on adult employment outcomes; presents international data on the characteristics of students who job shadow; draws on the research literature and national examples of practice to illustrate why and how job shadowing can be expected to benefit students and provides a step-by-step guide to the effective design of job shadowing programmes.