4 steps to supporting young people on their journey to work

Youth Employment UK (@YEUK2012) exists to provide young people with the tools they need to progress, supporting 14-24 year olds regardless of their education, employment or training status or location within the UK. Over the last 12 months we have been working even harder to support young people, predicting the impact Covid would have on their journey to work.

Listening directly to young people we have built a range of new inspiring and high-quality resources to support young people, free to use and free to those organisations working with young people.

We have created these 4 steps for young people to support them on their journey to work.

1. Build skills, knowledge and confidence.
2. Explore the world of work.
3. Learn about careers and the pathways available.
4. Find opportunities.

 1. Build skills, knowledge and confidence = Young Professional

This is our programme for young people who are looking to build their skills, knowledge and confidence to support them on their journey to work.

16 hours of interactive course content covering topics such as : You and your needs, Confidence and emotions, Skills for life and work, Education and training and more. The courses are flexible, young people can dive in and out of the informaiton they need, being able to complete the courses in their own time, receiving a certificate for each one of the 8 courses they complete.

These courses have been mapped to the Journey to Employment Framework, Gatsby Benchmarks, Skills Builder and CDI Frameworks. Providers can register (for free) to our Group Management System to allow monitoring and evaluation of the progress young people are making across the courses.

The Young Professional : Journey to Work is for 16+ year olds and is available now

The Young Professional : Prepare is for 14-16 year olds and is launching on the 5^th March

The Young Professional for young people with SEND is launching in the Summer 2021 

2. Explore the world of work = Work Experience

Work experience plays an important part in a young persons journey to work, it helps them to explore careers, build skills and grow confidence. In the last 12 months work experience has simply stopped and yet young people are still expected to make key choices based on their career aspirations, or understand the way the world works.

This is why we have built an interactive 1-hour Guide to Work Experience Course for young people. This high-quality resources blends video content and workbook activities to introduce young people to the world of work. Covering topics such as – key employment sectors, business functions, career roles, routes into work and more. By the end of the hour young people are more aware of the vast range of opportunities available to them, how to get ahead and how to get help.

3. Learn about careers and the pathways available = The Careers Hub

The Hub provides young people with impartial advice and information about all aspects of their education to employment journey. Packed with inspirations, case studies and really useful content. The Hub supports young people who are making education choices, looking to understand the careers that exist and the pathways to those careers as well as providing support across a range of areas such as job applications, interviews, starting a business, building digital skills and looking after mental health.

Within the Careers Hub young people can also connect to the best youth-friendly brands and opportunities.

4. Find opportunities = Opportunity Finder

Young people want to know that there are good quality opportunities where they live and this week we launched the Opportunity Finder.

This database allows young people to search for employers, providers and charities to find work experience, employment or volunteering opportunities searchable by region and nationally.

The organisations listed in the Opportunity Finder are committed to providing good quality opportunities and have demonstrated this by signing up to the Good Youth Employment Charter.

In 2020 the Youth Employment UK website was viewed more than 1.5 million times

With additional free resources and support for parents, career leaders and providers and employers we are able to support young people and those that support them on their journey to work.