Class of 2020, is also helping to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make use of the government’s Kickstart jobs scheme for 16- to 24-year-olds.
The programme, designed by Dr Norbert Morawetz, associate professor at Henley Business School, sees corporations such as Microsoft and Salesforce share training materials and resources through a free online portal.
It is aimed at encouraging young people, unable to find work due to the pandemic, to learn skills they would traditionally have gained through graduate and training schemes.
Morawetz said: “When the pandemic hit, it was pretty instantly clear that this would have a really big impact on all the students I was teaching who were about to graduate into this job market.
“All of the graduate recruitment programmes started to freeze up or size down and there were no jobs out there.
“It was pretty clear that not only were they going to have a pretty tough time finishing their degree but they are going to graduate into the worst job market that we have seen and so we thought: 'What can we do to counter that?'”
The resources have been shared as part of an online training academy run by a team of volunteers.
The portal also gives young people the opportunity to create and share informative content such as podcasts and blogs online as well as allowing an outlet to share experiences of living through the pandemic.
Morawetz added: “They started to make podcasts, blogs, talk about what they are experiencing - so we had the two sides, the training aspect and the other side, bringing a bit of hope, sharing some stories.
“Overall, 50 volunteers were involved to build this - make connections, make friends, have online social events.
“We’ve had some real success stories with people who have managed to gain employment.”
Class of 2020 is also now offering to support SMEs through the application process for the government’s Kickstart jobs scheme, which funds six-month work placements for young people.
The programme is also supporting smaller businesses to boost training programmes for Kickstart employees.
Trevor Bezzina, a member of the Class of 2020 team, said: “Kickstart is a great scheme but companies need to ensure they have the scaffolding in place that provides not just the support during the six-month programme but also gives them the best opportunity if they don’t continue in those places, it gives them the opportunity to at least build up a broad range of soft skills and competencies required to succeed after that six-month programme.”
To find out more about Class of 2020 click here.
