It took Karndip Singh only a few sessions with his careers mentor to realise he had been teamed up with a “future version of myself!”
“It was honestly an amazing experience, tapping into the knowledge and experience of my mentor,” says the sixth-former from Featherstone School, in Ealing.
For mentor Dave Baimbridge, group projects manager at Segro real estate investment trust, helping the teenager overcome his fear of public speaking was the highlight of the six-session programme.
“We worked on breaking the mental block he had about it,” said Baimbridge. “Seeing him stand up and speak without notes to a room full of strangers was one of the best work moments for a long time.”
Mentee and mentor were brought together by Spark!, a youth employment charity aimed at boosting young people’s chances of finding a job and a meaningful career.
Partnerships with more than 360 employers, including Segro, provide invaluable work experience and mentoring that helps reduce the fear of the unknown and motivate and equip young people to take the best next step.
Supporting teenagers who are at a disadvantage in the jobs market is at the heart of the mission. Characteristics such as being eligible for free school meals or being in care, having English as an additional language, coming from a poor neighbourhood or having special educational needs and disabilities make young people more likely to end up among the estimated 900,000 16-to-24 year olds in the UK who are ‘Neet (not in education, employment or training).
This latest Neet total, just published by the Office for National Statistics, is up from 812,000 at the same time last year and is nearly 13 per cent of the age group. In London, that figure is even higher at 16 per cent.
“There may be lots of vacancies and people recruiting, and a big labour and skills shortage, but at the same time there are lots of young people who are disproportionately affected by unemployment,” says Matt Lent, chief executive of Spark! “We know that a young person's prospects today are still largely defined by where they grew up and what their parents do. Put simply, while talent is evenly spread, opportunity is not.”
Trying to figure out what path to take at 16 and 18 is hard. The education and careers landscape has never been more complex, with myriad vocational and academic courses and an even wider range of potential jobs and careers.
Gen Z can be paralysed into indecision by the fear of not getting the grades they need, specialising too early, being rejected or ending up on a pathway that doesn’t suit them. For pupils with additional challenges and drawbacks, deciding on the next step and making it happen can seem an impossible task.
Spark! works with upwards of 3,000 teenagers each year to try to smooth this path. Around one quarter are on free school meals, while one in five has special education needs and disabilities (Send).
“We really value diversity of background and life experience”
Employers, too, are trying to take into account the individual challenges that young people face when applying for apprenticeships and training programmes.
Transport for London (TfL), which is currently advertising more than 30 apprenticeships, wants to engage with young people who are excited about the prospect of working for TfL and about the job area that they are applying for, whether it is engineering, IT, marketing or management. But recruiters don’t expect young people to be experts.
“We've tried to move away from thinking about this as job interviewing; this is about a learning experience,” said James Lloyd, TfL’s skills & employment lead. “And we really value diversity of thought, background, life experience and perspective. So being yourself is really key.”
Work experience or extra-curricular activities, often the preserve of the middle classes, are not an essential requirement, so teenagers who may not have the networks or resources to produce a polished CV are not at a disadvantage.
“Not every young person can get involved in every extracurricular activity that they would like to. They may have caring responsibilities, for instance” says Lloyd. “We’re very open minded as to how individuals demonstrate that motivation. It could be that somebody is interested in engineering but doesn’t have anyone in the family or wider circle who is an engineer, but they have researched it and found out that it’s about problem solving and impacting the world around them and are excited by that. We want the door to be equally open to that highly motivated person.”
To make the application process as accessible as possible, the initial online testing at the first step of the assessment can be done over the phone if necessary.
“At each stage of the assessment, we invite candidates to tell us about the requirements and look to accommodate those as much as possible,” says Lloyd.
Going even further, TfL runs specific programmes to help young people overcome barriers to work. Steps into Work is a 12-month programme that offers work experience and employability skills training to young people with neurodevelopmental differences, such as mild to moderate learning disabilities, ADHD or autism, delivered in partnership with the Shaw Trust charity. It involves three work placements, support from a specialist job coach and help to gain maths and English GCSEs if needed.
Colleges and universities are also doing more to support young people who face individual challenges. Later this month, Kingston University is running an autism Transition Day for students who will join the university in the autumn. It includes sessions on what to expect on campus, living in halls or at home, how to apply for the Disabled Students’ Allowance, one-to-one chats with the disability and mental health team and the opportunity for parents to ask questions.
“We understand that starting university can be daunting and nerve-wracking as well as an exciting opportunity,” said Hannah Pereira Guerreiro, mental health and disability manager at Kingston University. “This event is designed to make the transition from secondary school to university smoother and for young people to gain an insight into what university life is like.”
Once at university, students from particular backgrounds or with additional challenges can struggle to take up opportunities to boost employability, so Birkbeck, University of London has made careers support for disabled students a high priority.
The Birkbeck Ability Programme is a dedicated course for students with a disability, who are neurodiverse or have a long-term health condition, supported by the Ian Karten Charitable Trust. Students undertake four weeks of paid work placements with a diverse range of employers, from multinational law firms and tech companies to grassroots arts organisations, gaining self-confidence and skills.
“There is lots of evidence that if you give young people a certain number of positive and meaningful employment engagement opportunities, it massively impacts on their chances of being employed and their earning potential in the future,” said Lent from Sparks! “It is all about giving young people access to the experience, knowledge and skills to be able to find a job and have a meaningful and rewarding career.”
