Last month I had the pleasure of hosting the Movement’s annual CEO Summit and Youth Employability Awards. My first events since joining the organisation in February and the Movement’s first face-to-face Summit and Awards in two years!

The events brought together senior leaders from business, youth outreach organisations, charities, government and young people from across the country, to discuss the most significant issues relating to youth unemployment today and to celebrate the wonderful achievements of individuals and businesses across our network; none more so than our young people. The videos below give a sense of the electric energy and inspirational people in the room on the 28th March.

At a time when youth unemployment is nearly three times the national average, focusing on how we can better work together to tackle some of the most prominent challenges and barriers to work which young people are facing, has never been more of a priority.

We were honoured to hear from a number of young people who spoke openly about their experiences and career journeys, including the difficulties they have overcome to enter the workplace. They told us how the opportunities they have been given have helped to transform their lives, setting them up for long and successful employment; testament to the value youth employment programmes continue to provide to young people up and down the country.

The energy in the room really highlighted the commitment of our network to find solutions and ensure more young people have access to high quality job opportunities.  Some of the key points discussed include:

A lot of young people still don’t know where or how to look for jobs or support. How can we help them to find out about, access and navigate the various opportunities and programmes available to them? For example, how do we better connect to young people in local communities and what can we do to ensure outreach goes beyond the school environment?

We need to meet young people where they are. We need to focus recruitment activity on the needs of the young people being recruited, ensuring recruitment processes are inclusive and flexible.

Interviews for example are not always necessary for some roles, with people better demonstrating their suitability for a job during a trial period.

We also need to ensure youth employment programmes are always designed around the needs of young people. Identify the cross-sector and interpersonal skills needed by young people, in order to be set up for success and enabled to pivot where demand is; a focus on digital skills and sustainability will be key.

Hybrid programmes offer the best of both worlds.  As the country continues to open up post-lockdowns and we find ourselves navigating new ways of working, we shouldn’t forget the positives the shift to online working and learning has brought. For example, the democratisation of meetings and the opportunity to hire young people in more rural areas who may not have had the opportunity before.

We can and need to do more. Our young people need us now. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing incredible youth talent wasted. Young people need work and employers need smart, creative young people.  We have a responsibility to our younger generation. Put simply, they are our future and by helping them into work, we are not only helping to create a fairer world but helping business and the country’s economic growth.

In order to drive change, we must continue to monitor the challenges and barriers to work and action solutions in a way that is sustainable for all but which also delivers at pace. This means keeping the conversation alive with businesses, young people and our partners. To help enable this, we’re delighted to be launching a series of regular roundtable events for our network members. More to follow on this soon.

A big thank you to all who attended our events; to our speakers, our panellists who shared their experiences and everyone who contributed to this important conversation. By coming together and discussing the actions we can collectively take to help more young people work, we can continue to make a difference to the lives of many more young people across the country. I look forward to continuing our work together to achieve this.

To our award winners and nominees, a huge well done again. You are proof of the incredible scale of the potential of young people everywhere and proof of what’s possible when our network comes together to support and nurture this talent. Keep going.

As ever, if you’d like more information or are thinking about joining the Movement, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team. We’re ready to support.

Watch the videos below for highlights across the CEO Summit and Awards…

Hear from the amazing award winners!

• To download a PDF of this short summary click HERE
• To download a PDF of a longer detailed write-up of the MTW Youth Summit discussions click HERE

BLOG BY SAM OLSEN

  Read the 2021 MtW CEO Summit Insights and Impact report HERE

Each year, Movement to Work hosts its annual CEO Summit, bringing together senior leaders from business, youth outreach, government and young people, to discuss the most pertinent issues of the day related to youth unemployment. The last CEO summit was held at a point in time when youth unemployment was at a historic low and yet, just a year on, our Summit in February 2021 responded to a radically different context that we never could have foreseen:

• Young people account for 46% of the overall fall in employment
• Young people are bearing the brunt of lockdown – 47% of people furloughed are aged under 24
• Almost 200,000 young people who are out of work have been unemployed for over six months
• The unprecedented disturbance to young people’s education and the trauma of having their social lives disrupted at vulnerable ages

Given the challenges posed by COVID-19, we hosted the event for the first time online but we were encouraged by the participation and enthusiasm across our network.

We were inspired by the stories of young people who spoke boldly about their lived experiences, and the dedication shown by our key speakers and special guests:

• Olly Benzecry, Chairman Accenture UKI and MtW Chair
• Sacha Berendji, Retail, Operations & Property Director, M&S
• Seb Munden, Executive VP & GM U&I, Unilever
• Liz Williams, CEO, Futuredotnow
• Mims Davies MP, Minister for Employment (DWP)
• Jack Parsons – UK’s Chief Youth Officer and Award-winning young entrepreneur and CEO of The Youth Group
• Sam Meakings, Job Coach at the Department for Work and Pensions andMtW Youth Ambassador
• June Sarpong OBE, British television broadcaster and presenter (Event MC)
• Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE, award-winning comedian, actor and television presenter
• Russell Kane, multi-award-winning comedian and presenter

We also took this opportunity to celebrate a big milestone for the charity – achieving over 100,000 youth work placements to date. However, this celebration was swiftly met with the call to achieve our next 100,000 faster and stronger than ever before. Young people are facing the toughest circumstances we’ve ever seen, and so we must rally together to affirm positive action before it is too late.

I took away three key things from this year’s event:

1. We must see youth employability as a key way to bring true sustainability to life in our organisations – bringing in diverse talent and meaningfully engaging with our communities to bring about social mobility and an economy that works for everyone.

2. We must not rush to think that young people – the so-called ‘digital natives’ – are as tech-savvy as we may think they are. We need to continue to navigate the digital world remembering that not all young people have the access to tech and data, not all young people have the appropriate skills-set, and to be mindful that a digital world is not always the best place to foster positive experiences for our young people.

3. If we continue to recruit in the same way, we will continue to get the same results. I call on employers to quickly adapt, to stop recruiting for ’perfection’ and to recruit for potential – and – be prepared to develop it. We have to see beyond the classic markers of employability such as strong GCSEs and a well-written C.V. and re-think our strategy so we can cast the net even wider.

The media still talks about the risk of the lost generation – if we act now, boldly, this needn’t be the fate of our young people. We can do something about it. As leaders, we have a responsibility to be part of the solution and not the problem. Let’s not forget the young people who were already furthest from the workplace, and how COVID-19 has pushed them even further out. We believe that if we continue to have those young people in our hearts and minds as we move forward, our businesses will be stronger and the world will become a fairer place to be.

I hope you enjoy reading the report, and as ever, please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team should you require any assistance.

You can read the full report HERE: MtW CEO Summit 2021 FULL REPORT

Sam Olsen is CEO of Movement to Work