Youth unemployment is costing the economy £10m a day in lost productivity, so the need to give students work and employability skills training is greater than ever.

The Guardian reported this month that an ‘aspect of the worrying trend in youth unemployment is that there are thousands of young people who don’t have the skills, confidence or qualifications to find their first job.  They may have struggled at school or grown up thinking no one cared, and they are being driven further from the job market, as they struggle to compete with a backlog of graduates.’

So it’s clear that we need to tackle this entrenched youth unemployment now and that educators and employers must work together to give these disadvantaged young people the long-term support they need to escape unemployment for good.  1 million youth unemployed makes for a frightening headline.

One way colleges are responding is to offer the Work and Employability Skills qualifications this coming academic year to give their students an edge in the job market.

At Working Knowledge we partner with FE colleges nationally to deliver work, employability, enterprise and life skills on your behalf.  We do all the planning delivery and portfolio collection for you.

We deliver the qualifications by running events that are exciting, challenging and fun.  The events involve local and regional employers that we recruit on your behalf and who, in many cases, go on to offer students work placements, guest lectures and apprenticeships.

Students not only feel more confident about their career goals after our events, thanks to a large extent to the engagement with local business people, but also feel more motivated to complete their core programme.

Our partner colleges fund our programmes that last from 1-3 days either through the qualifications that we deliver on your behalf (including all portfolio collection) or through project funds such as Aimhigher.

Take a look below at what local employers and students thought about recent Working Knowledge events held in Bristol;

If this is of interest to you, then please email  james.lott@twkg.net for more information.