(1)The enactments relating to the prohibition or regulation of the employment of children shall not apply to the employment of a child in his last year of compulsory schooling if the employment is in pursuance of arrangements made or approved—
(a)by the local education authority, or
(b)in the case of a child at a grant-maintained school, by the governing body of the school,
with a view to providing him with work experience as a part of his education.
(2)For the purposes of subsection (1) a child shall be taken to be in his last year of compulsory schooling from the beginning of the term at his school which precedes the beginning of the school year in which he would cease to be of compulsory school age.
(3)Subsection (1) shall not be taken to permit the employment of a person in any way contrary to—
(a)an enactment which in terms applies to persons of less than, or not over, a specified age expressed as a number of years, or
(b)section 1(2) of the [1920 c. 65.] Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act 1920 or section 55(1) of the [1995 c. 21.] Merchant Shipping Act 1995 (which prohibit the employment of children in ships).
(4)No arrangements shall be made under subsection (1) for a child to be employed in any way which would be contrary to an enactment prohibiting or regulating the employment of young persons if he were a young person (within the meaning of the enactment) and not a child.
(5)Where a child is employed in pursuance of arrangements made under subsection (1), so much of any enactment as—
(a)regulates the employment of young persons (whether by excluding them from any description of work, prescribing the conditions under which they may be permitted to do it or in any other way), and
(b)would apply in relation to him if he were of an age to be treated as a young person for the purposes of that enactment,
shall apply in relation to him, in and in respect of the employment arranged for him, in all respects as if he were of an age to be so treated.
(6)Nothing in section 495 or 496 applies in relation to any power conferred on a local education authority or the governing body of a grant-maintained school by subsection (1).
(7)In this section “enactment” includes any byelaw, regulation or other provision having effect under an enactment.