Week 1-4 - Getting youths into work

Week 1 & 2

The first 2 weeks was mainly about getting to know everybody and finding out what they want and expect from Y2J. Today's job market is a tough one, especially when so many people with more years of skill and experience than our young people are finding it hard to get into work. Anhar's opinion is to see this as a strength, not a weakness. Our group consist of intelligent, young people with clean track records and tons of potential. And there are ALWAYS companies out there who are eager to take on fresh faced, entry level recruits with ambition to rise to the top.

We helped one of our young participants prepare for a job interview which he ended up getting! Wishing him all the best in his new workplace.

Anhar discusses what people want to get out of Y2J

Something interesting that came out of the session is our young people who are new to the interview process have low confidence and sense of self importance at interviews. They see themselves moving forward into bigger and bigger schools before finally transitioning from education to work, always feeling like a small fish in an ever growing pond. 

We'll be tackling this issue further in our upcoming confidence building workshops.

Week 3 & 4

Week 3 & 4 was all about everything that goes into a great CV and cover letter to make it stand out and impress recruiters. 

Terry explaining the importance of making your CV stand out

Here's what our group came up with.

What goes into a good CV?

• Contact details
• Personal statement
• Qualifications
• Skills
• Work experience
• Interests
• References

What makes a bad CV?

• Repetition
• Poor spelling
• Poor layout
• Length
• Lies

Terry brought a copy of his own CV which has had a VERY impressive 100% success rate for getting him to the interview stage! Shout out to Terry for insisting on taking some time out to point out all the many many (many) things wrong with my own CV.
Thanks (-_-)

Two of Y2J's participants have started work experience at Leaders In Community, giving them an invaluable opportunity to gain office skills.

If you are aged 16-25 or know of someone of that age looking for employment but getting little success, tell them about Youth Into Jobs!