Fill your early talent pipeline with engaged, confident and invested young people
Join Springpod, the Department for Education, and the UK’s leading employers in the Big Work Experience Challenge! Build career awareness, open employment doors for young people and engage more learners than ever before.
What is the Big Work Experience Challenge?
Simple, transparent pricing that grows with you. Try any plan free for 30 days.
The Big Work Experience Challenge turns career exploration into a year-long, gamified experience for students. Across four quarterly challenges, students complete career experiences on Springpod and earn points in the form of 'Rockets'. As students gain more rockets, they'll unlock digital badges, climb leaderboards, and get the chance to attend in-person opportunities with employers like you.
For your organisation, you'll gain awareness from programme participants and consistent engagement throughout the year. You'll build connections with young people who are planning for their future.
And it works!
Since launching the challenge, we've seen higher student engagement and lower drop-off rates across experiences. Instead of just accessing programmes, learners are engaging with them in a meaningful way.
Wondering why to get involved?
Reach young people who are actively seeking work experience
Since launching the challenge, we've seen significantly higher retention and completion rates. Learners are consistently returning to complete experiences with employers, building skills and career awareness.
Track engagement and measure your impact
See how your investment translates into social value. Our reporting measures your reach across underrepresented groups and shows you how your work experiences have improved confidence, readiness and brand interest amongst learners.
Create more awareness of your organisation and its roles
Feature your brand alongside the Department for Education (DfE) when we promote the challenge across promotional channels, positioning your organisation as a leader in early talent development
Our mission
How you can make a difference
Right now, nearly one million young people in the UK are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET). Even more concerning, only 17% of students currently have access to meaningful work-based learning. Additionally, for those in education only 36% of UK students currently gain in-person work experience before leaving school.
The Big Work Experience Challenge is our answer to this. We want to ensure every young person (regardless of background or location) can build skills, gain confidence, and have access to the opportunities they deserve.
But we can’t do it alone. We need partners like you to provide the inspiration and the insight to change young people’s lives.
About us
Who is Springpod?
Springpod is redefining how young people discover and prepare for their future career. Our mission is to create a world where every learner gains experience, skills, and confidence to secure their future. With millions of students leaving education without meaningful work experience, we work with leading organisations, universities and educators to make career exploration more accessible.
Through Springpod’s Virtual Work Experience (VWEX), young people build career confidence, gain employability skills and get access to impactful experiences regardless of their location or circumstance. For employers, Springpod helps build diverse early talent pipelines, improve retention and create measurable social impact.
We want to enable all young people to select and secure their brightest future.
Ready to inspire the next generation?
Whether you want to showcase a virtual work experience or offer in-person placements to our top performers, there is a place for you in The Big Work Experience Challenge.
Register your interest below and someone will be in touch with you shortly to review how your organisation can benefit from joining this innovative challenge!