The APPG for Youth Employment recently published its report into the role the government is asking businesses to play to support youth employment.

ThinkForward, which has business engagement at the heart our five-year programme, provided evidence to the inquiry. We were able to draw extensively on our own experiences of creating and managing relationships with employers to deliver work-related activities for young people to support them to make the right career choices.

Research shows that exposure to the workplace reduces the likelihood of young people going onto become unemployed when they leave school. However, there are several challenges on both education providers and businesses to deliver these opportunities.

You can read our full submission here but highlights of our evidence include:

• Study programmes, traineeships, T-levels, supported internships and apprenticeships all require varying degrees of employer engagement. Some of these programmes are funded across more than one government department but there does not appear to be any strategic coordination of their requirements, or any cross-government youth employment strategy.
• It is our experience that the employer engagement burden on schools is a huge challenge. Resourcing is difficult, especially given the funding constraints schools face.
• Schools and colleges can find it hard to provide employer opportunities for young people who are the least engaged, yet they are the students who need these experiences the most.
• Organisations like ThinkForward play an important role to bridge the gaps the schools cannot, both in developing young people to get them ready and interested to engage with workplace activities and identifying and nurturing businesses to provide the opportunities.
• There is huge variance across the UK in the ability of employers to provide engagement with young people. Some regions will contain large scale employers, a multitude of sectors and good transport links, whilst more rural areas will lack both the size and range of employers and the transport infrastructure to access what little opportunity there is.
• Businesses that are known to provide engagement opportunities are often inundated with requests and can’t handle the demand. SMEs often don’t have the resources so tend to shy away from providing any engagement opportunities at all.
• Creating and developing effective engagement takes time and resources – from both the business and school/college/youth organisation.

ThinkForward’s CEO Ashley McCaul said: ‘I’m delighted to see that one of the report’s recommendations reflects one of our suggestions that there should be a UK wide youth employment strategy. We know just how vital it is for young people to benefit from meaningful engagement with employers but currently the system is uncoordinated, patchy and too reliant on the good will of businesses.’

 

ThinkForward was delighted to receive the 2019 National Business Mentoring Award in the category National Mentoring Award – England.

The awards publicly recognise excellence in the field of mentoring that creates “real inspirational mentoring role models across every sector of business, education, sport and society”.

ThinkForward’s Business Mentoring Programme was chosen “to recognise an individual or organisation that has made a positive contribution by mentoring those living in England”.

ThinkForward runs mentoring as part of its five-year coaching programme to support disadvantaged young people who are at high risk of unemployment to get ready for the world of work. We deliver this in London, Nottingham and Kent in partnership with 18 local businesses and schools.

We began a business mentoring programme in 2013 in recognition of the huge benefit to young people of meeting regularly with, and learning from a working, professional person. Mentors build meaningful relationships, share their experiences, impart advice and encouragement, and help to break down barriers and perceptions about the world of work.

 

Year 10 students (aged 14) take part in face-to-face mentoring with volunteer staff from companies including JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Cook and Experian. ThinkForward provides training and each session follows a clear curriculum focusing on a particular theme each time e.g. how to present yourself in a professional environment and for job interviews. 180 young people take part every year.

ThinkForward is always looking for new businesses to partner with to provide young people with valuable exposures to working life and different industries. If you’re interested in getting your business involved, please contact info@thinkforward.org.uk.

If you would like to read more about the National Mentoring Awards, click here: https://nationalmentoringawards.org/

Students from Bradfields Academy in Chatham braved the cold, wind and rain to take part in the first in a series of work experience placements at the heritage farm park, Kent Life.

The young people, who all have mild to moderate learning disabilities, spent time looking after animals, doing ground maintenance and working in the tea room. It’s all part of an initiative between ThinkForward and Kent Life in Maidstone to provide a day of work experience every month until at least September for a group of 12 students.

ThinkForward runs a long-term coaching programme in Bradfields Academy called MoveForward, which supports students into sustainable paid employment. Work experience is a vital part of preparing all young people to get ready to find a job, but it can be difficult to find employers who have the time and resources to host them. At the same time there is competition for places from other schools and employability programmes.

Alison Miller, education and employment coordinator at ThinkForward said: ‘Regular work experience at Kent Life is a fantastic opportunity for the students and the aim is that they will each get at least three visits. By providing consistent and ongoing placements, Kent Life is acting as a role model to other local employers.

‘Young people can gain an understanding of their skill set, different work environments, what jobs they enjoy and areas they can improve upon. This will help them to make informed decisions about their future as well as building a local talent pool of work-ready young people.’

The students all enjoyed their day despite the inclement weather. Bobby who is 17 said: ‘I’m interested in doing car mechanics so I hope I can get to use some of the tractors and machinery on another visit. But at the end of the day I don’t know exactly what job I want to do, so it’s really good to get experience of something new.’

Fifteen-year-old Keziah believes that the placements are relevant for what she would like to do when she’s older: ‘I fed the chickens and collected the eggs and cleaned out the rabbits. It was fun and hard work. It’s good to come here because it gives me experience of what a real job is like. When I leave school, I’d like to teach people how to ride horses and the next time I’m here I would like to be able to look after and muck out the farm’s horses.’

Amelia, 17, got the best job of the day working indoors in the warm tea room. She explained: ‘First I had a tour of the kitchen and then I made the baguettes. I learned how to make different drinks like coffees and hot chocolate using the big machine which was a lot different from doing it at home. The clue is in the name ‘work experience’ – it was all good experience and I can now see myself working somewhere like this doing catering. I enjoyed it a lot.’

Nikki Thomson is the lead teaching assistant for the sixth form at Bradfields Academy. She said: ‘This has been fabulous for the students. Everybody mucked in and had a go. It has given the young people a real sense of worth and they can see the reasons for doing it.

‘It can be hard to get the students work experience and it’s fantastic that Kent Life is providing meaningful placements. The students want to do proper jobs and being here allows them to see that they can. Coming regularly means they get a chance to progress and do different things. The staff were fantastic because they explained what to do then left them to get on with it, which was really nice because the students were given the responsibility.’

Natalie Cox, general manager at Kent Life said: ‘We are very proud to provide regular work experience and volunteer placements as we believe Kent Life has so much to offer. We work with many different companies, schools and colleges year-round and our team are dedicated to helping our volunteers learn and grow with genuine hands-on experience. The volunteers’ input and enthusiasm are invaluable to us and it is also an extremely rewarding scheme for our team to be a part of.’