I recently attended the Youth Friendly Employment Conference 2015 as a Youth Ambassador for Youth Employment UK (YEUK), a day that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I have been a Youth Ambassador for over 3 months now, and this was my first ever event with YEUK. I have been getting to know the other Youth Ambassadors on online discussions, and it was great to finally meet a number of them including Laurence, Michael, and Blessing. Not forgetting Rhiannon the Social Media Apprentice and Laura-Jane the Chief Executive of YEUK.
After setting up our exhibitor stand, I went around to network with guests, it was very interesting finding out where everyone has come from, who they work for, and what they expected to get out of the conference.
The event kicked of with a number of speakers and panels, being reasonably new to YEUK and the employment sector, I learnt a great deal about the current state of the unemployed and how hiring works. Apart from my own ventures to improve the employability of young people, it was great to see employers changing their employment criteria. Specifically with apprenticeships, stressing the point that qualifications and experience is not important when you can learn on the job. A point that my colleague Laurence found particularly striking was how organisations are working hard to remove the barriers between young people and employment, be this because a young person resides in a rural area, or because of their wellbeing needs. The organisations that spoke throughout the day recognise that to keep in touch with the new modern workforce, they too need to modernise their recruitment strategy.
After the most delicious Salmon I have ever ate there was a short speech from MP Priti Patel, who told the delegates how the government is adapting to a changing job market by beginning schemes with the Job Centre Plus, Schools and Colleges alike.
Following on from that it was workshop time! Rhiannon, Laurence and myself held a workshop on ‘Developing Young People’, which worked with the delegates in explorative ways by explaining issues and how their teams would come up with solutions. Particular examples include the creation of new social media hubs to extract those hidden from employment, and ensure young people’s wellbeing needs are met. Those who took part learnt a great deal on how to bring and develop young people into employment.
Huge congratulations go to my friends Jack Welch for winning Ambassador of the Year 2015, and Hugo Garvey for winning Ambassador Representative 2015.I would like to thank the sponsors for making the event possible, I and many others had a great time and learnt a great deal and I am looking forward to 2016!
Find out more by following @YEUK2012 and searching #YouthCon15 on Twitter.
By Patrick Cantellow
