The health, safety and welfare of learners, when taking part in programmes involving work experience (of whatever type), depends on 6 essential factors which are all equally important. These may be represented as follows:

Learner entitlement Placement assessment Learner suitability assessment Pre-placement assessment Information, instructions, training and supervision Monitoring learner and environment Debriefing Learner entitlement

All parties involved in the management and delivery of all aspects of the learning experience should have arrangements in place to ensure that all persons involved are sufficiently competent to properly discharge their duties.

The Health and Safety Executive’s definition of competence is as follows:

"A person shall be regarded as competent where they have sufficient training and experience or knowledge or other qualities to enable them to properly assist in undertaking the necessary measures".