Week 1 (Reset) - Introductions and Ice-Breakers

Youth Into Jobs has been reset to week 1 for a new core group, essentially merging our new and old group.

Kick started the workshop with a game to learn everyones names. First person says an adjective starting with the first letter of their name, followed by their name so our trusty leader started us off with "Amazing Anhar". Next person has to say Amazing Anhar followed by their own version of their name. It gets really interesting near the end when people are being made to recall 14-15 names and adjectives in order, with some attempting to cover up by simply making up new names and adjectives.

Next, Y2J participants were told they would be doing a confidence test (we neglected to tell them it would also test their improvisation and ability to waffle). We split everyone into 2 teams and asked each team to create a poster advertising Youth Into Jobs to the target group they knew best: college students aged 16-19.

Rule number 1: You can only use drawings and numbers for their posters, no words
Rule number 2: You are allowed to explain what the drawings mean

We encouraged both groups to make their drawings as random as possible since they will be allowed to explain them (you'll see why we did this in a minute). Just as they were about to present, we threw in a little twist: both groups were asked to swap presentations and present using the opposite groups subject. There was silence followed by a flurry of activity as both teams looked through the mess of drawings and attempted to work out the meaning behind the opposite teams pictures.

Ruthless Rajina silences the group before launching into her poster pitch

This was a fun little confidence builder and to be honest our new group was surprisingly comfortable explaining these drawings that they were seeing for the first time. I'm wondering if going into presentations under-prepared is a regular occurrence for some... But this was a great sign at this early stage since if you can become good at presenting on something you know nothing about, imagine how good you'll be when you're an expert in the subject matter, i.e. in a job interview talking about yourself.

Super Sebastian confidently explains why there is a random number 24 written on his poster

This new group is full of energy and showing a lot of potential. The next few weeks of solid employment training and workshops should be a lot of fun with them.

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!