These days everyone has a coach, I have one, my colleagues have one, my friends have one, even Richard Branson has one, and now young people can have one too.  Like wheels on suitcases, it’s amazing how long it has taken to realise that this is a good idea, that young people can benefit from having a go-to person, a constant, a confidante and a single point of contact who will help open doors and opportunities.  For young people this is potentially transformative.

ThinkForward is leading the way in early intervention coaching. Beginning the coaching relationship with 13 and 14 year olds, and based full-time in a school, coaches are able to support young people who are at a high risk of dropping out of education, employment and training, to develop the attitudes, mind-sets, and the self-efficacy they need to succeed in the often difficult transition to post-16 education and employment.

A ThinkForward coach is not quite the same as those in the corporate world or life coaching, although they do have many things in common. ThinkForward coaches ask the young people challenging questions, ensuring that the responsibility for their choices and the subsequent consequences remains with the young person. Coaches provide support with unpacking complex and sticky issues, helping young people set goals and realise their best course of action, but they are so much more as well.

Not a teacher, parent or social worker, a ThinkForward coach is an older person in a young person’s life. A caring adult with high standards with whom they can have an enduring relationship.

The coach works closely with each young person to identify their needs, work out how best to meet them, and stands side-by-side with them while they navigate over the many hurdles, intrinsic and extrinsic, towards a stable and successful future. Some will need their metaphorical hand held the whole way, while others may just need to be pointed in the right direction.

The coaching relationship lasts for five years during which time the young person forges and traverses their individual path to further education and eventual employment. Coaches deliver a potent and bespoke combination of one-to-one support and targeted workshops, as well as creating opportunities for work experience and facilitating business mentoring relationships – all designed to better connect young people with the world of work. In addition to signposting, referring to and liaising with other service providers that can also support the young person to overcome barriers to their success.

Five years is a long time to develop a meaningful relationship, from the initial rapport building, through to reluctant cooperation and eventually enthusiastic alliance, this unique relationship is at its strongest when there is a mutual respect, understanding and perhaps most importantly – trust. The coach is willing to challenge the young person about their behaviour and their decisions whilst not excepting anything less than the young person taking full personal responsibility for their life, their choices and their own future.

Only with trust does this openness and frankness between the coach and the young person become accepted and flourish. It is these essential ingredients that support a young person on their journey; from dis-engagement and low aspirations, through to self-awareness, finding motivation, deciding upon direction, developing skills, securing qualifications and eventually moving into sustainable employment and personal success.

The latest report from Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation (Impetus – PEF) calls on the Government to take radical action in 2014 to make youth unemployment a thing of the past.  Why 2014?  It’s the year the millennium kids, those young people born in the year 2000 turn fourteen – an important year for them as they make choices about the GCSE’s they will study which can have a profound impact on their future career chances.  What advice and support the millennium kids receive this year is critical if we are to ensure they are adequately prepared to make a successful transition from education into work when their time comes to do so.

There are some scary statistics in the report, but maybe the starkest is the wage scaring effect of youth unemployment.  A young person who spends as little as six months unemployed before they reach twenty-four will on average earn less than their counterparts well into their forty’s.  A non-graduate young person who has been NEET will lose nearly £50,000 compared with another non-graduate who hasn’t been NEET and nearly £225,000 compared with a graduate.  A shocking £6.4 billion wages our millennium kids will lose.

So how do we reduce the risk of young people becoming NEET?  The report makes three recomendations that are all designed to tackle the structural causes of Britain’s NEET epidemic: create a Secretary of State for School to work transitions who will be responsible for building and realising the vision for Britain’s youth labour market and ensuring there is a clear line of responsibility for making NEETS history.  Second the report calls for changes to the pupil premium, making schools more accountable for disadvantaged student’s post-education destinations not just their academic attainment.  Third the report recommends ofsted be charged with holding schools to account for their efforts to produce school leavers who are ready to work.

Neither the report nor its recommendations will come as much of a shock to those working with young people either inside or outside of school.  We can predict with high levels of accuracy those young people who are most at risk of dropping out of education, the risk factors are well documented and understood.  Yet the links between education and work readiness are often ignored.  If we are to reverse the youth unemployment trend policy must not only focus on those who are already NEET, but also on what experiences, qualifications and skills are fourteen, fifteen and sixteen year olds require whilst at school to prepare them for employment.  Let’s make 2014 the year we act, we owe to our millennium kids – let’s make NEETs history.