AQW 7169/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 21/02/2024
Answered On Date: 07/03/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Assembly Commission when the work experience programme will be restarted.

Answer:

Between 2010 and 2014, Assembly Commission staff in the Education Service coordinated work experience requests. Delivered in response to ad hoc requests, the experience was uneven for participants, depending heavily on the availability of staff in various Assembly Commission business areas. Challenges around the Assembly Commission’s responsibilities to young people and managing expectations as the Assembly faced into the final two years of the mandate meant that this ad hoc programme was halted.

Periods during which the Assembly was not operating normally, together with the COVID-19 years, have limited the potential for a work experience programme since then. However, the development of a new work experience programme is being considered as part of the Assembly Commission’s forthcoming Engagement Strategy. This draft Strategy has not yet been considered or approved by the Assembly Commission.

Such a new work experience programme, if feasible, will seek to strike the balance of a positive and consistent learning experience for the participants against the demands of Assembly business in a public building. An egalitarian and inclusive programme which offers opportunities across our society will underpin our efforts.

Subject to the feasibility of the proposed work experience programme, consideration of resourcing implications, and consideration and approval of the Engagement Strategy by the Assembly Commission, officials anticipate that a work experience programme could commence in the next 12-18 months.