Last week, I was pleased to deliver a workshop at the GEM Conference at Bletchley Park, with my co-facilitators Emily Toettcher, Head of Programmes at National Paralympic Heritage Trust (NPHT), and Sophie Millward, Apprenticeship and Skills Pathway Manager at the RAF Museum. I started by presenting an overview of the inclusive pathways work I have been doing as a freelancer for Group for Education in Museums (GEM). This was followed by Sophie and Emily presenting about their virtual work experience offers - the RAF Museum are working with Futures for All to offer groups a two day online opportunity, and NPHT are exploring working in a hybrid way with individual SEND young people where working remotely often suits their access requirements better. We then split into groups to think about the following questions:

What are the pros of offering virtual work experience?
What are the cons of offering virtual work experience?
How could you work in a hybrid way to bring the benefits of virtual and in person placements together?
How can you make sure that offering virtual work placements provides a meaningful and engaging experience?

We concluded by inviting participants to write down one action to take away, and highlighting next steps for the GEM inclusive pathways work including a free GEM webinar on 12 November.