Our youth engagement work aims to take a practical approach in informing and helping young people, especially those at risk of becoming NEET, to make more informed choices about their future.
One of the biggest barriers young people face when entering the world of work is adapting and settling into a working environment. By giving students the chance to meet employers while still in the classroom setting, we aim to bridge the gap between schools providing support for academic success and employers getting the next generation ready for work
For National Careers week this year we teamed up with the WOW Show, an online channel creating real-life encounters with the world of work to inspire young people about their futures. Following three successful shows and being named Careers Provider of the Year by the Careers and Enterprise Company and the Gatsby Foundation, the WOW team decided to create a show focusing around the range of careers out there and the importance of transferable skills.
The entire show was a huge success with 675,000 young people tuning in to the live stream and 7,450 combined YouTube views. Working with colleagues in Kineo we created a short, snappy animation demonstrating the importance of building interpersonal skills alongside academic achievements.
A survey found that teachers rated our employability segment the best segment in the show and reported that it strongly resonated with their students – coming in second place just behind the creative industries. It was also the single most watched segment with nearly 12,000 views alone!
We’re proud that the schools reported that the show helped them achieve at least two of the Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance: Learning from career and labour market information & Linking curriculum learning to careers.