Do employers have to give time off for work experience?

Surely this is all part of work experience, you can't just have off whenever you like even if unpaid. You are employed to attend work

Depending on the course she is doing, some work experience may be mandatory? But it's not compulsory in general for Y12s. That said, if it is college policy that everyone is doing work experience this week, and she's already organised a suitable placement, she probably does need to find a way to get the time off at work.

If work is clashing too much with things she wants/needs to do, perhaps she should look for a more flexible job- e.g. zero hours so she can pick up shifts when she is free? Having very fixed work commitments may be a lot in Y13.

Or, if it's an evening job, could she negotiate an early finish with the work experience placement?

Ask college for the legislation / contract that states it is compulsory? There is no national requirement and they should not be lying to their students to get them to comply 😮
If the college have a requirement to complete this as part of the course, they should explain that. But they should be flexible around the hours if they are outside of her normal college hours. If her work shifts are during the day due to space in her timetable that may be harder to argue.

She could also ask work if it is possible to swap shifts with someone - ask a manager and explain why rather than colleagues.

Could she swap her hours to a different day/week?

This is her college requirements, not a National thing.

Ds did a Btec and there was a requirement to complete x number of work experience hours for his particular course. He did it ad hoc, he arranged to do some shadowing on several different days plus used a course he was assisting with.

It would not be reasonable for DD's college/sixth form to expect a work shift outside normal college hours (ie pre-9am and post 3.30pm) to be foregone in favour of time at a work experience placement. If it is that your DD has contractual shifts within normal college hours, then it is more of a grey area.

A practical approach could be to get all signed off with the college and work experience setting and then negotiate with the setting so that if, for example, your DD needs Wednesday pm at her paid work, the work experience setting could simply tweak their programme to accommodate.

Worst case scenario, your DD has to use up some of her holiday entitlement. I have/have had DC in a similar position and actually think it is good they understand they have to budget their time and holidays. Yes, Open Days are more difficult to plan for but that also is a learning opportunity, as they say!

Y12 work experience can be harder to come by these days, especially office-based, with so many more WFH, so it is good your DD has secured something she sees as relevant.

As far as I’m aware Work experience is mandatory for all students across Year 12

No it isn't. Hasn't been since 2012.

In her position, I wouldn't do the "work experience" as it's rarely of any value and she is already getting the experience of working regularly. The only benefit of "work experience" is giving students without part-time jobs or volunteering roles a feel for what it's like to have to be somewhere when you are expected to be, and to do what you're told until it's officially time to go home: can be a shock for some. If your daughter is doing regular shifts in a shop/cafe/etc., she already knows all this.

If they refuse to give her leave, and the work experience is important to her, she should just go anyway, and deal with the consequences later. You can take an employer too seriously

Most reasonable employers would allow the time off as unpaid leave if they are given enough notice. Or maybe she can make the hours up if she doesn't want to use annual leave.

Welcome to life. They are all things she wants to do and therefore what annual leave should be used for.

In that case can she swap shifts/days or even ask for unpaid leave? Sometimes it is a choice between doing the thing that you need to do and making a sacrifice elsewhere, and that’s something she will have to deal with as an adult

I’m not aware that work experience is compulsory in y12. My DDs certainly didn’t do it, but they were at school a couple of years ago. They did do work experience, but I think it might have been y10.

I think this is an opportunity to show her that annual leave isn’t just about using it for fun things, sometimes you need to use it for serious reasons, which is good work experience in itself. Balancing the amount of leave you have and planning how to take it and keeping some in reserve in case you need it.

She has an employment contract, so most likely she will need to take as a holiday and her employer is not being unreasonable to expect. When there are hundreds of staff in a large supermarket to manage it can become difficult if you allow everyone flexibility instead of sticking to their fixed hours.

Is she allowed to swap shifts with another employee if she can find someone willing to cover for her?

Ask her teacher to point her to the law/regs where it says they have to give her time off for work experience (bet she can't).

She doesn't appear to fall into any of these categories - https://www.gov.uk/training-study-work-your-rights

I'm sure someone will be willing to swap shifts with her.

Whether it is compulsory or not is irrelevant. She isn't entitled to paid time off. So whether it is unpaid leave or annual leave is a decision her employer decides, and she needs to discuss it with them.

Of course it has to be annual leave. Work experience in year 12 isn't compulsory. If the employer felt like being generous they could give it as unpaid leave but they certainly don't have to and this is certainly not a hill to die on.

It should be annual leave. Not sure why anyone thinks otherwise?!

Her work are BU not to allow her unpaid leave

There is no national requirement for work experience in year 12! She could just not go for that day, given she's giving up paid work to do it.

That said if it's something she's interested in and somewhere that might give her paid work or a paid internship, then it's probably worth losing a days pay from the supermarket.

what job is it she id doing? If she is in year 12, surely it is a zero hours contract?