Press Release
Major UK Employers commit to being Youth Friendly
Santander, Tesco, Kent County Council and charity UK Youth are the latest UK employers to pledge their support to being Youth Friendly. Most recently the Skills Minister Matthew Hancock MP has offered his support for this independent initiative.
Youth unemployment has been making headlines in the UK for nearly two years, with the number of young people NEET (not in education, employment or training) nearing 1 million at its peak. The estimated cost of this to the UK economy is £28 billion over the next 10 years*. There is also evidence that long term unemployment will lead to significant mental health and social immobility problems among young people.
The coalition government has responded in a number of ways – with the Youth Contract in 2011, education reform, investment in enterprise, apprenticeships, the All Age Careers Service and Plotr and now more recently a £50m cash injection, but still youth unemployment remains unacceptably high.
Youth Employment UK CIC is a not for profit organisation that was set up in 2012. Founder and CEO Laura-Jane Rawlings felt that not enough was being done to tackle youth unemployment and the lack of coordination and signposting was a big part of the problem. “There are thousands of organisations in the UK trying to support young people, with brilliant initiatives and opportunities. There are also thousands of employers who are already supporting young people and in some cases struggling to engage and recruit young talent. Billions of pounds have been spent by government, charities and the business community and yet the return of that investment is hard to see. Without clearly championing what works and creating a central cohesive platform this investment is being wasted.”
Marcus Lee, Head of Resourcing and Early in Career at Santander, said: “We are delighted to be working with Youth Employment UK and are proud to use the new Youth Friendly badge to show our commitment to helping young people into work through our growing range of programmes for school and college leavers. YE UK has created an innovative approach to co-ordinating and showcasing the vast array of initiatives that are now available to support youth employability.
Youth Employment UK CIC was set up as an impartial campaigning and membership organisation, to sit across all things related to youth unemployment. Today it has a growing membership of young people, employers, providers and educators.
In addition to the campaigning and membership work Youth Employment UK CIC has created the UK’s first free national Youth Friendly badge which recognises employers who are positive about youth.
“Just 1 in 4 employers are working in some way to support young people and this isn’t good enough. We need to ensure that there are enough opportunities – work experience, mentoring or in deed employment. Youth Employment UK CIC looked at how we could encourage more employers to engage with young people and the Youth Friendly Badge is our response.” Laura-Jane
UK employers can gain the free Youth Friendly badge online by going through three simple steps. Once an employer has completed the application they will then be awarded a Bronze, Silver or Gold Youth Friendly badge.
The badge recognises the work of companies who are in some way investing in the development of skills and opportunities and hopes by promoting and rewarding those that do, it will inspire other organisations to follow suit.
As part of the process “Youth Friendly” employers are encouraged to ask their own supply chain to also become Youth Friendly. The impact of this request could make the biggest difference to youth unemployment nationally.
The benefits of engaging with young people are well documented and now there is a way to showcase your organisation as being one of the good guys. “To reinforce the need for UK employers to be part of the solution we are running a campaign to make December Youth Friendly. Our hope is to sign up a 1000 employers to the free badge and raise the profile and the positive steps that can be taken to tackle youth unemployment. Supporting young people can be done in many ways not least offering to talk to students in schools. We believe that every UK employer can and should be Youth Friendly from micro businesses to major corporates.””
For the editor
The 3 steps to becoming Youth Friendly
1. Sign the Positive Youth Charter
2. Commit to two Youth Friendly activities a year (Careers Talks, Work Experience, Mentoring, Apprenticeships etc)
3. Self-assess companies behaviour against the following 8 Youth Friendly characteristics
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- Santander
- Tesco
- Kent County Council
- UK Youth
- JJ Churchill Ltd.
- NCC Resources
- Future-talent.com
- Aspire training team
- Baltic Training Services
- Pertemps People Development Group
- The Geffrye Museum
- Global Action Plan
- National Youth Agency
- Acorn Training Consultants
- Capital Group
- Dash Coaching
- Eden Training Ltd
- In Touch Care Ltd
- InspireEducation
- Joan Goodger Food Safety
- KATS Ltd
- London Youth
- Signature Strength
- Silver Skills
- Streetscape
- Work Force Development
For more information please contact Laura-Jane Rawlings of Youth Employment UK CIC on 08444143101 or email ljr@youthemployment.org.uk
