Findings from our Covid-19 survey

As our young people head back to school and college or embark on the next stage of their journey, it’s a good time to reflect on the impact of Covid-19 on their well-being and what we need to do to address the various impacts.

More than half of our young people are worried about their future and a third say their mental health got worse as a result of the Covid-19 and the lockdown.

These are just two of the findings from a survey of 150 young people on our programme. We wanted to discover how the pandemic had affected them, and also use the findings to help us ensure we’re providing the best ongoing support.

London Year 12 student Fabiha said: ‘Lockdown took a toll on my well-being. I didn’t go out much, just for walks, with school being the main thing I missed – the learning, my friends and my teachers.

‘Coach’s calls are the highlights of my week, I bottle up all the things I want to talk to him about and when we speak it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. When I feel a bit low, my coach has helped me to pick myself up again.’

A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research found that the average pupil lost three months of learning during lockdown, but that more than half of pupils at schools in the most deprived areas lost four months or more.

Our survey results suggest some reasons why some students were more adversely affected. It showed that many of our young people didn’t have access to technology or study space during their time out of school and college. For example, 36% of respondents would have liked a quiet area to learn and 31% had issues with internet access/data.

Looking ahead, there is recognition that it could be harder to get a job. Connor, a student in Kent who has just started Year 12, said: ‘I do worry more about my future now. I watch the news and see that a lot of businesses are facing uncertainty, there will be fewer jobs and no-one knows how long Britain will take to recover. I know that young people looking for jobs will be badly affected by the economic impact of Covid-19 but because I’m with ThinkForward and work with my coach I’m confident that I’m better prepared than many of them.’

We were delighted that young people felt they had been well-supported by their coach during lockdown, scoring us four out of five. In addition, 35% of young people said their coach was their main support provider and 25% said being connected with their coach helped them maintain their mental well-being.

After a long absence from their education and disruption in their lives, we know that many of our young people might need supported in different ways. As we start the autumn term, Ashley McCaul, ThinkForward’s CEO said: ‘We’ve used the findings from our survey to inform how we develop our programme to make sure our coaches are meeting new needs and supporting young people back to school and college. I’m sure times will still be challenging, but I’m confident we can all adapt and positively embrace the start of the new term.’

Programme end date to change for ThinkForward’s 2020 graduates

We’ve been thinking hard about the implications of Covid-19 on the young people on our programme, particularly those due to leave this summer.

In the light of the challenges this group have faced since March, the stress to the labour market as a result of the economic fall out of the lockdown and the research that’s been done into what groups will be worst hit, we anticipate that many of these young people will need support beyond their expected graduation date of July.

As a result, we’ve decided this year to extend the end of the programme until the October half term. It means our coaches and business partnership managers will be able to work with young people over the summer months as they seek to progress onto their next step.

Our director of programmes Matt Archer said: ‘In a normal year, most of our young people successfully graduate from the programme into work, training or further study, with the small numbers who don’t receiving ongoing job-seeking support, but we’re concerned that in 2020 things could be very different.

‘By extending their time on the programme we can continue to work closely with our young people to provide advice and guidance on job hunting, and ensure they have the resilience and drive needed to secure employment in these testing times.’

We are also be reviewing all the announcements made in the Chancellor’s mini budget to ensure our young people can take advantage of relevant new opportunities aimed at minimising the economic shock of Covid-19 on under-25s.

We’ll be recruiting our next intake of ThinkForward young people before the summer term ends and aim to start working with them after the October holiday.

Celebrating ThinkForward’s volunteers

It’s volunteering week and we’d like to give a shout out to the amazing volunteers who offer wonderful opportunities to our young people. We have some brilliant businesses who enable their staff to volunteer as mentors, and others who host activities such as workplace insight days, CV workshops and interview skills sessions.

These invaluable experiences help to open up new windows on the world. Sophie, a student in Kent had a volunteer from Deloitte. She said: ‘Mentoring has been an amazing opportunity. I’ve learned so much from my mentor and really enjoyed getting an insight into what it’s like to be in the workplace.’

London student Sabrina explained: ‘I’ve become more confident because I’ve had lots of opportunities to do new activities like career talks and business insight days. I get to meet and speak to a lot of new people. It’s helped me to see the point of learning because now I get the connection between working hard at school, getting a job and moving on to the next stage of my life.’

While volunteering has an obvious benefit for the young people it is also hugely rewarding for staff. Alison Payne at COOK said: ‘‘When we hold insight days or mentoring sessions there is a lovely benefit for our team as it gives them a chance to grow and develop their skills in public speaking, coaching, mentoring and relationship building. The young people build their confidence and learn skills to help them become work ready and be clearer about their ambitions for the future.’

Ardian run mentoring sessions and have recently responded to a request for volunteers to review CVs to ensure each young person does justice to their skills & talents. Matt Thornton who manages the relationship said: ‘I feel very fortunate to work for an organisation which encourages and actively recruits people who are focussed on more than just financial success. I have the real sense when I talk to my colleagues that they have the awareness and decency to realise that the impact of this pandemic reaches far beyond their own family and work lives, and that they appreciate only too well that many young people will be needing even more support than ever.’

Billy in Kent described how having a volunteer mentor helped him build new skills: ‘I think the difference between what I learn at school and what I learned at business mentoring is the realistic side of things. We did a session about interviewing for jobs which definitely helped me when I went for a part-time job interview. They explained that I shouldn’t slouch, to speak properly, and all the stuff that I needed to know to get the job. I did the interview and I got the job! It’s given me more confidence.’