Good Practice: How a social housing provider is improving young people's job prospects in London and the home counties
Monday, October 3, 2011
One Housing Group's employment service has supported 290 young people since last year
Project One Housing Group's Youth Employment Service
Funding This year, One Housing Group invested £806,000 in employment and training services including an apprenticeship programme. It also gained £150,000 from the charity Community Action and a £250,000 grant from the Future Jobs Fund
Purpose To support young people into employment
Background One Housing Group is a social housing provider working in London and the home counties. For the past four years the organisation has run an employment and training service for young people and adults, but 18 months ago it set up a dedicated service for young people aged 16 to 24. "Young people face different barriers to employment so our aim is not simply to support them into employment but to identify those barriers and help them overcome them," explains employment and training development manager Nazrul Islam.
Action The Youth Employment Service operates across all the areas that One Housing Group serves. It works with a range of partners, including Jobcentre Plus and local youth services, to identify those not in education, training and employment. Two trained employment consultants work on a one-to-one basis with young people. This includes doing a series of assessments to check basic skills and assess young people's learning styles. The service can help them access courses and gain practical qualifications, which might include a place on One Housing Group's apprenticeship programme.
The scheme works because the support is tailored to young people's needs rather than provided in a fixed way, says Islam. "If a young person already has a good CV then they're not going to have to sit through a CV-writing course," he says. "But if someone has got interviews but hasn't been successful we'll work on interview technique."
Outcome Since April 2010, the service has supported 290 young people. Of those, 121 have gained accredited qualifications in fields including construction, customer service and security. Eighty-four have gone on to get jobs. The service continues to monitor and support people while in employment. According to its evaluation, 93 per cent said getting a job improved their motivation and 97 per cent said it improved their chances of finding other work. Nearly 80 per cent said it had improved their general health and wellbeing.
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