News Tag: Youth employment

Young Entrepreneur are looking for a diverse group of young people aged 16-25 who live in England to share their experiences and challenges of running their own business.

Recruiting 42 participants to take part in paid interviews and paid focus groups to tell them more about their experiences as entrepreneurs.

Interview: 30 minutes £30

Focus group: 60 minutes £60

The link to the registration can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/CVR_youngentrepreneur 

Please feel free to forward the link or this email to anyone you think might be interested in taking part in the research.

The launch of the Good Youth Employment Campaign

As we see youth unemployment levels rise, the challenge ahead for young people is becoming clear. Coronavirus continues to challenge the way we live and work and young people as a group face the biggest employment impact. Those furthest from the labour market are disportionately affected widening gaps in our communities.

And whilst the Opportunity Guarantee and investment in the #planforjobs including Kickstart and increased incentives around apprenticeships is welcome the focus is rightly shifting to the quality of those opportunities. 

Young people are going to need the government, employers and providers to make a gigantic effort to develop the volume of quality opportunities they need. This is why Youth Employment UK and its network of Ambassadors and partners are leading a campaign for Good Youth Employment and calling on businesses to create more quality opportunities for young people. 

In order to support the development of these opportunities Youth Employment UK are making access to the Youth Friendly Employer Badge and the support that goes with it free of charge. Organisations who support, develop or employ young people can now apply for the free Youth Friendly Employer Badge and identify themselves as organisations committed to good quality youth employment. Alongside access to the free Youth Friendly Employer Badge organisations will also be able to access the plethora of support and insight from Youth Employment UK to help them embed the principles of Good Youth Employment.

Organisations can join Youth Employment UK’s campaign, access the campaign pack

Youth Employment UK’s CEO Laura-Jane Rawlings:

“Making access to the Youth Friendly Employer Badge and the support that comes with it free of charge was an easy decision to make. We were established in 2012 following the last youth unemployment crisis and it is our core mission to support young people not in education, employment or training and tackle youth unemployment. Making it as easy for employers and the organisations that support them to understand and be recognised for their quality opportunities is going to be an essential part of the recovery.”

The benefits…

The wide-ranging benefits of the Youth Friendly Employer Badge include:

• Youth Friendly Employer Badge assets to use on your communications, digital media and in house documents
• Members platform including downloadable resources (including our new Kickstart Guide), case studies, webinars and other resources to support members
• Access to the Good Youth Employment Charter Toolkit
• Monthly Newsletter including latest policy information and insight from government and general youth employment updates
• Opportunities to attend events and influence policy
• A listing in our Youth Friendly Employer database accessed by >100,000 young people per month
• Single social card circulated through Youth Employment UK’s social media channels

To apply for the Youth Friendly Employer Badge an organisation must first agree to work towards the Principles of Good Youth Employment, as outlined in the Good Youth Employment Charter.

Organisations will be able to join the likes of Coca-Cola European Partners, St. James’ Place, Prezzo, McDonalds and a number of SME’s, youth organisations and providers in a community effort to create and be recognised for their youth friendly employment opportunities.

These 5 Principles were first developed by Youth Employment UK and its network of young people and partners in 2012 and have recently been reviewed as part of the work of the Youth Employment Group who have supported the development of the Good Youth Employment Charter Toolkit.

The 5 Principles

• Creating Opportunity
• Recognising Talent
• Fair Employment
• Developing People
• Youth Voice

Find out more about the Principles of Good Youth Employment and sign up to the Youth Friendly Employer Badge here.

The Youth Employment Group is calling on policymakers to act now to prevent record levels of unemployed young people after furlough ends.

Government must act now to avoid a record number of young people ending up out of education, employment or training from October.

Youth employment experts from the The Youth Employment Group (YEG) estimate that 1000 extra employment, training or education opportunities are needed each day to bring the number of young people not in education employment or training back to pre-crisis levels by October 2021.

Young People Will Be Hit Hard When The Furlough Scheme Ends.

Young people are being worst hit by the crisis in the jobs market and they will continue to struggle as the furlough scheme draws to a close, redundancies rise and competition for jobs increases. The most recent labour market statistics show that youth unemployment is likely to follow the trends of previous recessions, meaning the number of young people not working or in education could increase by 50%, reaching a total of 1.1 million. To bring the figure to pre-crisis levels by October 2021, government must drive the creation of 1000 opportunities every day.*

The YEG brings together over 150 key leaders and experts in the youth employment sector, and was formed by Impetus, Youth Futures Foundation, Youth Employment UK, the Institute for Employment Studies and The Prince’s Trust to help drive the UK’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The YEG has shared recommendations from its working groups with government, calling for clear objectives to monitor progress in supporting young people during the economic crisis and beyond.

Read the Youth Employment Group Recommendations here
https://www.youthemployment.org.uk/youth-employment-group-recommendations/

Young People In Crisis Need Further Funding For Education, Employment And Training.

The Co-Chairs of the Youth Employment Group commented:

There is much to welcome in recent announcements targeted at young people, such as the launch of the Kickstart Scheme. But these alone will not provide enough opportunities to return the number of young people out of work or education to pre-crisis levels.

Crucially, without clear cross-government objectives and measurement, it will be impossible to know whether the government’s initiatives are having their intended impact. And, as the government prepares its next Budget and Spending Review, it is clear that young people will need further funding for education, employment and training to face the scale of this crisis.

Samantha Windett (Director of Policy, Impetus), Tony Wilson (Director, Institute for Employment Studies), Richard Rigby (Head of Policy and Public Affairs, The Prince’s Trust), Laura-Jane Rawlings (Chief Executive Officer, Youth Employment UK), Anna Smee (Chief Executive Officer, Youth Futures Foundation).

Securing a place for young people in the nation’s economic recovery
Final recommendations from the Youth Employment Group (YEG)

Download the paper here (August 2020)

About the Youth Employment Group

The impact of COVID-19 on young people’s prospects in the labour market and in education is rapidly becoming a cause for concern. According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, young workers today will be hit the hardest. Youth unemployment could potentially rise to one million young people. We know that the scarring effects of short and long-term unemployment are disproportionately experienced by younger generations, and those facing disadvantage, so it is vital that we do everything we can to protect these groups now. In response to the crisis, Impetus, Youth Futures Foundation, Youth Employment UK, the Institute for Employment Studies and The Prince’s Trust formed the Youth Employment Group (YEG) to bring together key leaders and experts around the youth employment sector to help drive the UK’s response. The YEG is focusing on the immediate and longer-term impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on the employment prospects of young people – in particular, those facing the greatest challenges.

Consequently, the YEG created six working groups covering the main areas of concern:

1. Reducing job-losses in the immediate term

2. Providing employability support during lockdown

3. Ensuring a quality welfare-to-work system post-lockdown

4. Encouraging a healthy youth labour market post-lockdown

5. Supporting viable and quality self-employment for young people

6. Ensuring effective and accurate use of data

These groups provided the opportunity to work collaboratively, and with governments and policy makers, to ensure that young people – especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds – are best supported during COVID-19 and its aftermath. This policy paper represents the culmination of these working groups as it brings together the main proposals and ideas for tackling youth unemployment put forward by each group.

 

 

 

 

Child Poverity Action Group have published a report today with the Church of England on the impact of the pandemic on low-income families – based on a survey and interviews: 

Coronavirus has turned the lives of families with children upside down. Many parents have lost jobs or been furloughed and many schools and childcare facilities have largely been closed, leaving those still in work facing the impossible task of balancing work with childcare and home schooling. These challenges are particularly acute for low-income families.

Based on an online survey of 285 low-income families and in-depth interviews with 21 of these families between May and August 2020, this report offers an important insight into the day-to-day struggles that families have been dealing with, as well as their strength and resilience in managing such an array of challenges on a limited income. It was written by CPAG and the Church of England. 

It looks at the financial and non-financial impacts as well as the sources of support families had, and makes the following recommendations: 

• Child benefit should be increased by at least £10 a week and an extra £10 a week should be added to the child element within universal credit and child tax credits.
• Free school meals should be extended to all families who are in receipt of universal credit or tax credits, with a view to introducing universal FSM for all children in the longer term.
• The benefit cap should be abolished, or at least suspended for the duration of the pandemic.

Further information:

View the report here 
https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/report/poverty-pandemic-impact-coronavirus-low-income-families-and-children

NEW SURVEY: THE TOLL OF LOCKDOWN ON LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/new-survey-toll-lockdown-low-income-families

What works when it comes to getting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into employment? The Youth Futures Foundation commissioned The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to undertake a rapid evidence assessment to identify what existing evidence was published about supporting disadvantaged young people to achieve employment outcomes, to inform the Youth Futures Foundation’s strategy and generate useful findings for the sector working with young people.

This report aims to identify the main evidence that already exists. It was a ‘rapid evidence assessment’ and included evidence that:

• was about interventions targeting young people aged between 16 and 24, particularly those facing barriers,
• measured the employment outcomes of participants,
• was able to make a causal estimate of the impact on outcomes, i.e. it could account for what would have happened without the intervention.

The particular focus of the search was interventions targeting young people aged between 16 and 24. 

Further information:

Download the report here 

Institute for Employment Studies (IES)

https://www.employment-studies.co.uk

IES is an independent, apolitical, international centre of research and consultancy in employment policy and human resource issues.

London Community Foundation have partnered with the Citi Foundation to deliver the 2020 London Impact Awards: Powering Youth! 

The aim of these awards is to highlight the positive impact of charitable organisations and groups that are working to tackle youth violence across the city, and provide a positive future for children and young people who are at risk of violence. 

There are three categories for organisations to apply for, and one for an individual: 

·                     Best Youth Voice

·                     Best Innovator

·                     Best Collaborator

·                     Young Leader with Impact

 

Three organisations from each category will be shortlisted and the winner from each category will be awarded £30,000 for organisational development.  The Young Leader with Impact award winner will receive £2,000 to support their professional development as well as mentoring opportunities. Winners will be announced at awards ceremony on 19 February 2020. 

There is more information here: https://londoncf.org.uk/apply/london-impact-awards