Become a Young Professional!A new employability skills initiative is set to boost young people’s career confidence and help change the face of youth employment
The YEUK Young Professional Membership is an initiative to boost career confidence in young people of all backgrounds.
The Young Professional initiative at a glance:
- 16-24 year olds apply for and complete training to be awarded free Young Professional Membership
- Guaranteed job interviews from our Youth Friendly Member Employers, if your CV and experience are a match.
- That’s a direct positive impact on youth employment
- 100% positive feedback from over 200 initial programme alumni who feel the initiative has boosted their career confidence
- Young people are being invited to take part via committed schools, colleges, youth centres, charities, organisations and employers across the whole of the UK. The Young Professional initiative is a FREE membership opportunity for all 16-24-year olds who want to develop their professional skills and be seen as a Young Professional by potential employers. And it is resulting in tangible outcomes… such as guaranteed job interviews from leading nationwide companies and organisations.
“We create a number of labels for our young people, most of which are negative – NEET, Economically Inactive and “at risk”. These labels have no doubt contributed to a culture that is less than youth-friendly. Our young people are the very fabric of our society. In the not too distant future they will be the leaders of our businesses, economy and political system. Their potential has no limits but the labels we place on them do,” says Laura-Jane CEO of Youth Employment UK.
“At YEUK we believe every young person has the right to be inspired and empowered to achieve their potential. The YEUK Young Professional Membership puts the tools into young people’s hands to begin to change the way they and the world see them. It’s a vital message to all employers: see them as young professionals rather than NEETS.”
Young Professional Membership is available to all 16-24 year olds in the UK, regardless of education, employment status or background.
The programme creates a level platform for all young people to step up to who want to take ownership for their skills development. This creates an exciting opportunity for social mobility, with a programme that is open to all and provides everyone with the same opportunity.
The programme has had the support of Michael Tomlinson MP, who is the Chair for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Employment. “This is an excellent initiative for young people, I am very happy to support it and support my constituency to get involved.”
What Young Professionals are saying:
Over 200 young people have already undertaken the Young Professional programme and their positive feedback speaks volumes to employers and policy-makers:
“The ‘YEUK Young Professional’ allows an opportunity for a young person to decide, ‘you know what, I can be anything I want to be and YEUK are going to kick-start my career.’ With more employers guaranteeing interviews for graduates completing the programme we are effectively socially changing the mind-set of young people and employers alike to ensure a better tomorrow for our young people.” Sam Bell, YEUK Ambassador (23)
Guaranteed job interviews and support for Young Professionals
Influential organisations from YEUK’s network have got behind the initiative, with a number of employers and organisations offering to guarantee interviews for any YEUK Young Professional that applies for a job with them. Colleges and schools across the UK have committed to encourage all students to sign up and tap into the support available. Youth groups and charities across the country are also committing to take part.
‘The Young Professional programme provides high quality exposure to the world of work and will enable a young person to be inspired, motivated and gain valuable knowledge and skills to create opportunities that will allow them to achieve their potential’ Charlotte Bosworth, Director of Skills and Employment Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations Board
The launch of the YEUK Young Professional initiative kicks off with a 6-week challenge on 19th September. At least 1,000 young people are expected to sign up as YEUK Young Professionals with 200 organisations pledging their support to the YEUK Young Professional initiative.
A report on the challenges, outcomes, impact and next steps will be released at YEUK’s Annual Youth
Friendly Employment Conference and Awards in November.
https://www.youthemployment.org.uk/yeuk-young-professional-challenge/
Notes for the editor
What is YEUK Young Professional?
The YEUK Young Professional Membership is a FREE membership opportunity for all 16-24-year old’s who want to develop their professional skills and be seen as a Young Professional by potential employers. The membership is available to all 16-24-year old’s in the UK regardless of education, employment, training or experience backgrounds.
Applicants will be asked to complete a 25-minute introduction to professional skills within three key areas: Employability, Personal and Technical skills. Each area drills down to the key skills needed, such as Communication, Teamwork and Presentation skills. Once the introduction is complete, short quizzes enable participants to demonstrate their understanding.
Young people who successfully complete the programme are awarded YEUK Young Professional Membership status. Able to call themselves YEUK Young Professionals on their CV and LinkedIn profiles, they can access an online library of support and information to help them continue to develop their skills right until their 25th birthday. Every fortnight, YEUK Young Professionals will receive a newsletter with links to top resources and inspirational stories from other young people offering peer support and insight.
What is the aim of the YEUK Young Professional?
We want to provide all young people with a level playing field to build up their skills for employment. Unfortunately, there’s no consistency in the current approach to developing employability or personal skills for all young people. Youth Employment UK has created the Young Professional Membership to give every young person an opportunity to take ownership of their skills development.
What has been most interesting is how being awarded YEUK Young Professional Membership has made the participants feel about themselves. Seeing themselves in a more positive light and being more confident in their ability.
Who is supporting the YEUK Young Professional
We have had overwhelming support from our network including organisations like DWP, Plotr, World Skills, Santander, IFDS, learndirect and McDonald’s. McDonald’s and learndirect have already pledged to guarantee interviews for any YEUK Young Professional, recognising the programme as a great way to identify job applicant’s commitment to their self-development.
Ways to get involved
Over the next 6 weeks YEUK has set a challenge to sign up 1,000 young people (aged 16-24) to the YEUK Young Professional Membership and get 250 organisations from around the UK to pledge their support to YEUK Young Professionals.
We welcome employers and organisations to pledge support and introduce the YEUK Young Professional to their networks. We will be sending out supporter packs to organisations who would like to really get behind the YEUK Young Professional Membership and join us in our campaign.
The organisation who provides the best support for the challenge will be recognised at our Annual Conference and Youth Friendly Awards on the 24th of November where we will be reflecting on the challenge and announcing our next steps.
About Youth Employment UK
YEUK is a not-for-profit community interest company set up in 2012 to tackle youth unemployment. YEUK supports all those working in the youth employment space and champions young people who should be at the heart of the work taking place in this sector.
Our key objectives are:
To provide a platform for young people to have a voice on youth employment issues that
affect them.
To empower young people to use the information and inspiration available to them and to
develop their skills and networks to help them progress.
To support organisations working in the youth employment space by providing an impartial
platform for them to communicate, share best practice and network.
To campaign and influence policy on the issues and barriers that affect our members.
For more information
Contact: Laura-Jane Rawlings, Chief Executive Officer – ljr@youthemployment.org.uk
Address: C/O Pearson Training, Bangrave Road South. Corby. Northamptonshire. NN17 1NN
Telephone: 0844 4143101
Website: www.yeuk.org.uk
