European Framework for Work Experience

The European Framework for Work Experience (EFWE) is a European standard for the assessment of students' employability skills developed through paid, unpaid and voluntary work experience undertaken whilst studying.

The project was initially funded by the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci programme, and co-ordinated by CRAC. CRAC's partners in the EFWE project come from across the UK, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Spain and Romania.

The framework itself indicates the key stages of work experience, from preparation through to doing and finally to reflection. It is based on the perspectives of the student, the careers practitioner and the employer.

A comprehensive range of supporting materials are available, including:

Employer Survey and Report on work experience and employability skills  glossary of commonly used competency and work experience terms Student and Employer Case Studies of work experience guides of good practice for Employers, Students and Work Experience Practitioners 12 Competency Units and a guide for their use for students to self-evidence and reflect on their skills and work experience a guide to the using the Competency Units for employers.

These resources are freely available to download from our Knowledge Transfer section.

The European Framework aims to help establish work experience as a basis to develop key skills and student employability. The tools developed through this project help students to understand what employers are looking for, reflect on their work experience and to translate the skills they gain into sellable attributes by evidencing against a set of core generic competencies that employers have identified (through our research) that they need.