Campaign urges employers to target jobless young people

Launched by youth employment charity Circle, the Jobs for the Jobless Generation campaign aims to lobby employers such as high street retailers Marks & Spencer and Topshop to give a job to some of the UK’s one million jobless young people.

It is urging the public to use social media to exert pressure on companies and is asking for people to tweet employers to encourage them to allow unemployed young people to compete against each other for positions.

A video has also been released as part of the campaign to highlight the negative stereotypes young people have to face, and to show that they are committed, keen and want to work.

Secretly filmed, an actor playing a careers adviser suggests job ideas to 20 unemployed young people such as becoming a drug dealer or getting pregnant and claiming benefits, which the young people all turn down.

Members of the public can then call on companies in the UK to give the 20 young people from the video an opportunity to work by following an external link and tweeting, while employers can also watch video CVs and donate job opportunities.

Circle founder Turly Humphreys said: “Our aim is to help young people with barriers to permanent employment get into work.

“These barriers can be such things as lack of confidence, lack of role models, basic life skills and of course the catch-22 situation of lack of experience.

“This can be hard work sometimes, but we face a bigger battle trying to change people’s broader perceptions when they meet our candidates, so it’s not an immediate ‘no’.

“Research has shown that we read negative body language and react negatively towards it, almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Fundraising partner Givey.com, an online donation platform has also unveiled “Givey Share”, a feature that allows users to share the video and donate money to charity.