CV help and mock assessment centres to boost teenagers' job prospects
1
The Pitch
Problem statement
In Tower Hamlets our students perform well academically, meeting or exceeding national averages at GCSE level. An increasing number of our students go to university. However, when then faced with the entering the job market, they under-perform in relation to their peers who come from middle-class backgrounds, as they do not have the same “polished” CVs or confidence in group interview tasks. This locks them out of some of the most prestigious graduate roles and fuels the phenomenon we see where our local young people work in administration roles that are not commensurate with their higher-level skills.
Solution
We will work with local teenagers aged 16-17 on CV improvements and assessment centre techniques to ensure a more equal playing field for them against advantaged peers. We will organise business volunteers to sit with students and advise on individual CV improvements to maximise their attractiveness to recruiters. We will run mock assessment activities where business volunteers observe the contributions that students make during the activity, and provide students feedback to improve. Funding will be spent on salaries and materials to facilitate these events for 100 teens. Impact in the long term is an increased proportion of students in roles with a determined pathway and better pay.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
We have over 30 years of experience in this local area working with young people and we are the employability provider of choice in the borough, so we have the knowledge of what our teens need and how to get them the best individual help from business representatives. We work with circa 500 local businesses annually to ensure our students can access their best future. Our workshops are refreshed every year to ensure they are up-to-date with latest jobs-market trends. Our facilitators are all highly trained in youth delivery.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Senior Project Manager to deliver sessions for 2.5 days | £950 |
| Volunteer Lead to recruit business volunteers and students for sessions (1 day) | £270 |
| Additional Project Manager Facilitator for 2.5 days | £875 |
| Project Coordinator onsite for event support, data admin and reporting (3 days) | £450 |
| Printed materials for 100 students | £50 |
| Contribution to costs for IT and CRM | £25 |
Beneficiaries
100 people
Expected impact
Out of 100 young people, at least 85% will report in the short term: - Better understanding on how to improve their CV - Be confident in presenting their CV to prospective employers - Better understanding of how employers use assessment centres to assess candidates - Better confidence in taking part in the various roles of an assessment activity In the long term we expect to see that out of these 100 young people there is a higher rate of them joining graduate-level roles compared to their peers. Therefore these young people will access a more determined career path and on average better pay over the course of their career.
Track record
We regularly run employability programmes with over 95% satisfaction rate of both student beneficiaries and volunteers, who would recommend the programme to a peer. We work with around 5,000 business volunteers and 12,000 students every year, so we are very experienced in providing the outcomes that young people need and that volunteers can provide. We follow the Gatsby benchmarks for career provision in schools and are the employability provider of choice for over 50 schools in the borough.