Many young people don’t know what they want to do with their lives when it comes to finding a suitable career path. So, if that’s how you feel, too, you aren’t alone.
With youth unemployment figures rising to almost one million in the UK, having dropped by a massive 107,000 since the impact of covid alone, assisting our young people into sustainable employment that suits them and their skillset needs to be a priority we all share. Lack of entry-level positions, rise in retirement age, lack of experience, and generalised perceptions of young people are just a few barriers standing in their way.
Young people crave not only a wage but also positive early interventions from employers, providing opportunities to build their self-confidence to stave off emotional problems that may stunt their lifelong earning/career potential.
At Kaleidoscope, we believe that we must help young people wherever we can. Whether through advice and guidance, work experience or developing communications campaigns and tools, we want to help develop their skills and self-confidence.
Finding what motivates you
It’s easy to get stuck on the career conveyor belt, jumping from job to job with no real direction. Most people tend to stay in the industry they first fell into at a young age, which is alarming considering 85% of the global workforce are unhappy in their jobs.
With this in mind, it’s crucial to get in tune with what motivates you. You spend, on average, 35% of your waking life at work. So discovering what genuinely motivates you will make you feel better about giving a third of your life to your job.
Finding your motivation can be hard, especially at a young age, but there is no greater strength than understanding yourself; this will influence your career choice, CV, interview confidence, and ultimately your future happiness.
Not sure what motivates you? Sometimes it can be good to talk to those who know you best, to hear what they believe your greatest strengths and skill set could be. You could also check out the fantastic resources available on the Windmills Foundation website.
Useful resources
Here’s a list of some great free resources that may help you brush up on your CV, hone your interview skills and find work experience/apprenticeship.
CV support
Having a strong CV is the first step towards landing the job you want, so it’s important that it speaks to the employer and shows why you’d be a perfect fit. Check out the support available on the National Careers Service website. They also have a freephone line where you can speak to a specialist advisor.
Interview skills
Offering a freephone telephone number and live chat options with an expert, the Prince’s Trust has some good tips on the do’s and don’ts when sitting the dreaded job interview. Check out their website for plenty more advice and guidance around employment.
Work experience
Volunteering, internships, work shadowing, and part-time work are all great ways to enhance your skillset and try out various career paths before prioritising one. Many companies also offer paid work experience. Check out Prospects for a wide range of work experience options locally and across the UK.
Apprenticeship scheme/search engine
Check out ‘Be More’, part of the Combined Authority’s apprenticeship and careers portal for Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. With almost 500 apprenticeship vacancies currently available, it might be worth investing a little time scrolling through to see if anything stands out.
How we help
At Kaleidoscope, we believe, as an agency, that supporting our young people is increasingly important, and we like to do our part when providing opportunities to young people in our region.
We’ve enjoyed working with the University of Liverpool Career Studio project, which aims to assist young people in finding exciting employment opportunities. It’s a flexible student-led space where students can talk with an experienced peer-to-peer coach to discuss their career aspirations.
We also enjoy working with Agent Academy, delivering a session each year where we provide an insight into the comms agency life. Their next programme launches on 14th June 2022.
Over the years, we’ve enjoyed working with many young people keen to learn more about agency life. We’ve offered them work experience and helped them figure out whether or not our industry is for them. We might even come out of it with a new hire. If not, no worries; we’re happy to hopefully give them a little more direction than they had before. We’ll always try and point anyone in the right direction whenever possible.
If you’re interested in seeing agency life in the flesh, don’t hesitate to drop us a message, we’ll work out something.