Young people accounted for nearly half of the total labour market fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic despite only representing one out of nine of those in work (Wilson & Papoutsaki 2021)
Evidence suggests a positive relationship between the number of employer experiences in school and young people’s confidence in entering the world of work (Mann, 2015). At the same time, 81% of people who took part in volunteering reported increased community awareness. 65% had improved communication skills and 59% reported an increase in confidence. (CIPD, 2018)
Our employability programmes aim to tackle youth unemployment and enable businesses and young people to make a positive contribution in their local community.
Through our programmes we aim to:
- Create meaningful employer experiences for young people
- Boost young people’s confidence in entering the world of work
- Help businesses access local talent
- Provide opportunities for businesses and young people to develop their skills
- Act as a catalyst for social change in the community
The drive to deliver our employability programmes, which are not-for-profit, comes from our founder Natasha’s experience of running youth-led programmes in the UK and abroad. When she was younger Natasha didn’t know what she wanted to do for a job and she empathises with the challenges young people face entering the world of work. When she worked in Uganda, Natasha was inspired by the young people she met, who had a drive to create change in the world. Striving to be a responsible employer, Natasha has hosted several work placement students and is continually impressed with their talents. Our mentoring programme aims to bring these strands together through mentoring, career insights, and social action.
Mentoring programme
Over a three- or six-month period, access one-to-one mentoring sessions, skills workshops and take part in a social action project to develop confidence and clarity to enter the world of work. We prioritise spaces for young people who are out of work or due to complete their final year of school / university. We are creating an eco-system across our programmes whereby many people who complete our coaching and development programmes go on to participate as mentors. This enables them to give back and provides a return benefit to their employer by helping them to achieve their social impact goals.
We’d love to hear from you if you’re a young person or business who’d like to get involved!
Work Placements
We support businesses to access local talent by helping them identify the work placement opportunities that is right for them. We are proud to be registered as a Kickstart gateway organisation, to support businesses to create paid six-month work placements for young people. Find out more below!
Mentoring
We offer mentoring support for young women looking to get into a career in social change. Get in touch to find out more about our mentoring programme coming soon!
Social Action Projects
Our consultancy services range from helping you set up a social impact project, to reviewing progress, and measuring your impact.
Kickstart
To address the disproportionate impact that the pandemic had on youth unemployment, the government invested £2bn into the Kickstart scheme aimed at providing businesses with funding to provide six-month work placements for young people.
Impact People & Change was proud to become a registered gateway organisation with Department for Work & Pensions, helping businesses to access the scheme and providing skills development for the young people participating. We are proud to have supported over 10 business in the East Midlands and beyond to create meaningful opportunities for nearly 20 young people. Read more about our impact in our Kickstart Impact Report.
Example consultancy projects Natasha has delivered include:
- Designing large-scale employability programmes to tackle youth unemployment
- Leading people transformation in a large local authority to improve service delivery
- Redesigning criminal justice and rehabilitation services following changes in policy
- Developing project management tools and staff training for a charity to support their growth
- Contributing to the development of a mental wellbeing and resilience strategy for an international volunteering programme
"Natasha is an outstanding person to work with. She is excellent at identifying and delivering the key elements of a project to achieve successful outcomes."
Colleague, probation service transformation programme.
What people say about us
"My employability skills have developed Massively. I have explored different processes, systems finance management and I have enhanced my employability. This internship has given me the steppingstone into my desired career path"
Vishakha, Kickstart placement intern, 2022.
"This programme has helped me to identify my skill sets, ways to manage my mental health and interview advice and feedback"
Kickstart participant
“I now have confidence in my career goals and where I want to end up. I was given the space to explore options that I hadn't explored before, opening more pathways and taking opportunities as they became available”
Roshani, Mentee in the NTU Social Action Mentoring programme, 2023.