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Teacher encounters - tools and resources

Invite teachers into your workplace with teacher encounters 

Do you want to ensure  young people in education know about your industry and the skills needed to thrive in your business?

Are you keen to help teachers stay up to date with your industry and bring this to life in their lessons?

Inviting teachers into your workplace for a few hours, a few days, or even longer has benefits for your business, for teachers, and importantly, for the young people that will form the workforce of the future.

What is a teacher encounter?

A teacher encounter provides an opportunity for teachers to engage directly with employers to see and learn about the different career pathways relevant to their subjects, and to observe how their subject is applied practically in business.

Teachers can then meaningfully use these insights to enrich their curriculum teaching, helping their students build a deeper understanding of opportunities, connections between learning and industry and the essential skills that need to be honed for different roles. There are a number of pathways and routes into employment, in particular technical and vocational options like apprenticeships. This knowledge can empower educators to effectively support students to take their best next step.

Teacher encounters can take many forms, from five hours to multiple days, face-to-face, virtual or a mix of both. From just one teacher to multiple colleagues.

What's in it for business?

As an employer, offering teacher encounters supports deeper and more impactful engagement with your local community and future talent pipeline. Evidence tells us that teachers are one the biggest influencers on young people’s decision making and teacher encounters gives you the opportunity to support them to inspire the next generation to the best of their ability.

Teacher encounters guide

Our practical guide for employers can support you to successfully host a teacher encounter.

Evaluation of the Teacher Encounters programme

Discover the impact of the year-long national pilot programme that delivered over 1,000 encounters between teachers and employers.

Read more
Wonderful experience being able to support teachers and help them understand what employers expect within various positions of employment. This may influence schools to input this information into the curriculum, which will hopefully prepare young people better for when they go out into the 'real" world!

Externship host employer, North East England

How can I get started?

If you'd like to get involved, we are here to support you.

1. Establish the type of encounter you would like to facilitate- you can explore some ideas provided in our

2. Contact your local ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ Hub to see if they are running any Teacher Encounter programmes.

3. Review our which will help you to think through the next steps to facilitate a teacher encounter. 

The biggest takeaway was finding out about the opportunities for students with a range of attainments. Apprenticeships have moved on so much since I left school, and I feel well placed to support all my students with a route to their career other than a degree.

Dr Lisa Holloway, KS3 science teacher, Sandhurst School Berkshire

Get in touch

If you would like more information about teacher encounters

Contact us