1000 Club for young people reaches work experience milestone

A club designed to help young people get valuable work experience has smashed its own targets.

The 1000 Club has now opened up the doors of opportunity to 1,028 young people. The club was set up specially to give young people a taste of work – either through work experience, graduate internships, apprenticeships and jobs – full or part-time.

And so far, 285 full-time jobs have been created, 12 part-time jobs, 281 apprenticeships, 152 internships, 173 work placements and 125 school work experience placements have been provided by almost 190 businesses.

The club was launched last September and aimed to make it easier for employers and young people to team up to better suit each needs. Key city companies flocked to sign up to get the city’s young people on the road to full employment.

Councillor Leader Tudor Evans said: “It’s working! Our young people are working! The 1000 Club is working – I’m utterly delighted that by working together as a city – we’ve made a massive difference to the prospects of over 1,000 young people. It shows what can be achieved.”

The 1000 Club was set up through the Plymouth Growth Board – a partnership between business and senior public sector leaders.

Chair of the Growth Board and Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, Paul Woods said: “The 1000 club was set up to make it easier for companies to offer work experience to young people in the city. Giving them this opportunity helps to break the cycle of young people not having enough experience to be able to apply for jobs. We’d like to thank all the participating companies for making this programme such an early success.”

Businesses that sign–up are contacted and their individual requirements are discussed to identify the most suitable partner that can offer them support to meet their needs.

The 1000 Club is one of 19 projects in Plymouth’s Plan for Jobs – a concentrated effort by the Council to bring together actions and commitments from city organisations to pump energy, motivation and substantial funding into the local economy to stimulate growth and jobs.

Dan Mumford from Job Centre Plus added: “This club has brought different organisations together all with the aim of helping young people get work. There is still more to do. We started with the big companies as we wanted to them to be ambassadors for the club. Now we would love to hear more from the smaller and medium-sized businesses.”

The 1000 Club plans to target smaller businesses in different parts of the city in very shortly.

Background

Many major city companies flocked to sign up including Kawasaki, First Great Western, Burt’s Crisps, Babcocks, Rittal, Pipex and many others. Plymouth Citybus donated 1,000 free bus passes – so that those who become apprentices or get full time work receive free travel for the first week of their employment.

The Council has made employment, skills and growth a top priority – particularly focusing on create opportunities for young people, who through no fault of their own, have reached employment age during a difficult economic period.

For more information on how the club works, which companies are part of the club and some of its success stories visit www.1000.co.uk

Case studies:

The micro business - Prensus Consultancy

Elaine Budd, who runs the consultancy and is heavily involved in the 1000 Club, mentored student Sarah Hirst and helped her get work experience with theatre company Stiltskin. Sarah worked with the company and schools to create costumes and sculptures for the Christmas Lantern Parade and Lord Mayor's Day. Sarah is also about to get more experience as part of helping to organise the Respect Festival.

Sarah said: “It’s opened my eyes to what sort of opportunities there are and I now know I’m able to do these things. It was also interesting to get an insight into how events come together.”

Elaine said: “Anyone who runs a business is in a great position to help young people – often much more than they realise. Many of us know businesses and events that could do with an extra pair of hands – and a fresh pair of eyes.

“The business and the young person both benefit. As an independent consultant I am not able to provide formal work experience, however, mentoring young people, running workshops at schools and colleges or giving guest lectures at the University has been an incredibly rewarding and beneficial experience.

“It encourages reflection on your own practice and reminder that may be some of the fundamental principles are often forgotten! I would recommend to anyone."

Jury’s Inn

The hotel is a 1000 Club member and has been incredibly supportive of the city’s plans to give more young people a chance of work, hosting work academies, hospitality events as well as numerous work placements.

Their human resources manager Helen Dymoke-Marr was invited to the House of Commons earlier this year to meet the Minister of Employment to discuss youth employment.

She said: “The best thing companies can do for young people is to give them a chance. We give them a mixture of different experiences in different areas, so that they get some confidence, are able to talk about experiences at interviews

“We recruit on core values, positive, friendly, willing, genuine and consistent. We want work ethic and potential staff able to show kindness and thoughtfulness. Many of our young people are just not getting the opportunities to show what they can do.”

The hotel organised a number of work experience opportunities and say there were extremely impressed with the calibre of people who took part. So much so, they have now employed some of them.

Faz McLaughlin, 24, said: “It has changed my life really, to be given this opportunity for a proper career is amazing.”

Lawrence King, 21 added: “The best thing was getting to work in different parts of the hotel, everyone was really friendly and I now have a job and a future.”

Plymouth University

The university placement team has developed extensive relationships with many local companies and organisations. Shirley Walker, Head of Careers and Employability, said: “We’re delighted that more than 1,000 young people in Plymouth have been able to benefit from the experience and expertise available in the workplace.

“Placement opportunities empower young people to become motivated and passionate individuals and as such increase their employability through the new skills and knowledge they are able to develop in the working environment. The experience is also beneficial for employers and the local community as it allows for workforces to expand and for entrepreneurs to develop their innovations and ideas.

“The University is committed to producing talented and employable graduates and we hope the club’s success will provide inspiration to other young people in the city to progress their skills and become successful in their chosen career paths.”

Nathan Davies, a second year student on a web applications development degree, has been on a placement at GOSS Interactive since July last year.

He said “The company has a huge client base so I’ve been able to develop my skills in interacting and communicating with a range of people. It’s been so beneficial to gain this experience before starting my final year and I’ve learnt so much more than I ever expected to.”

Dan Cottam from GOSS Interactive praised his high quality work and professionalism and said: “Nathan relishes a challenge and has handled every piece of work we’ve passed his way with a professionalism normally seen in much more experienced developers. He has integrated well with the team and gets on well with everybody.”