Careers Guidance for Young People

‘I have just had a look through the House of Commons Education Committee report on the 'Careers guidance for young people: The impact of the new duty on schools, which is very interesting. The worrying issue here is that we have a school system under pressure to meet targets, a business community who need to recruit young people that are prepared for the world of work and young people falling down the hole between the two. We have great teachers and great businesses who want to provide what is best for young people but unfortunately the system is letting our young people down and has done for many years.

My work has focused at the local level on connecting local business with young people to provide them with an understanding of the employment opportunities that exist post education. In doing this and by capturing the imagination of young people to aspire and want to fulfil their aspirations, we can, I believe, also assist with a young person’s academic or vocational attainment. I am constantly reading and hearing through the media that there is a problem with the high rate of youth unemployment, which we all know, but this is not new information, I was quoting these OECD figures four years ago, but I do not see the grand vision of a solution to address this massively urgent
issue.

The clock is ticking; we have an important raw resource for business growth and development in our young people, how do we protect, grow and develop this important resource for the benefit of the UK economy and the wider community?’

Kevin Smith, Chief Executive, YOUNG CHAMBER UK

OK the Young Chamber Team has been doing a lot of work to continue to support schools and young people with their understanding of 'enterprise' across the country.

Now we know that this is really important stuff assisting to prepare a young person for the world of work by using local employers to provide real and meaningful understanding of jobs and their  future career opportunities that can and do exist for them post education. Now you would think that what I am talking about is quite obvious and that this must be a part of the infrastructure that is supported by government and the educational establishment, it could not possibly be delivered in a random disjointed way across the country could it?

We currently as a country have more than 1,000,000 young people unemployed aged 16 to 24 and this I believe is a direct result of this random support that exists in some areas and not in others. This is no way to plan for future economic growth and development.

The future Human Resource that exists in schools up and down the country has to be better supported  to  enable young people to plan and dream from a young age about what they may one day want to do as a career or job. This needs to be built into the very fabric of the education system as well as encouraging 'possibility thinking' that appears to disappear at some stage between 11 and 16.

Young Chamber will work with any school and any business to give opportunity for all young children of all abilities and from every background to fulfil their goals and ambitions.  Who wants to work with us?   

Change the World, entrepreneurs and all that stuff....

I had the fortunate opportunity a couple of years ago to attend an event at Cambridge University called ‘Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge’, where some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs gave some illuminating presentations on how they made it in business. Many of these representatives were from huge global business brands Google, Facebook, Mozilla etc and I was particularly struck by three things: their youth; their energy; and that they all wanted to change the world, for the better.

Wow! I had never attended any event where you have the founder of ‘Linked In’ stand up in front of an audience that were predominately students and actually say ‘ I want to change the world’ this was just simply fantastic. And the great thing about such statements is that they are actually in the process of doing just that, changing and influencing the world for the better.  Now, as you get older and a little more jaundiced coming across individuals with new thoughts and philosophies on how this can be done is very inspirational, they are ‘possibility’ thinkers, they will have a go at new ideas and new ways of working and if one idea does not quite work out they will have a go at developing something else. This is I believe what entrepreneurship is all about which also includes one element which is probably not so common in many of us, the ability to take risks.

I find it very interesting, the ongoing conversation nationally, about how we develop the next generation of entrepreneurs in this country, as they are very special people. I wonder if we can really train individuals to become entrepreneurs, or are they born to be entrepreneurs. Now I say this, as the people I have met and would describe as being entrepreneurs have a natural drive and ambition to be successful in business or whatever they choose to do. These business people have usually used any asset that they have owned, investing in themselves and their futures including risking losing their homes! Now how many individuals are prepared to do that, risk everything for their business idea! This I believe is the difference between an entrepreneur and us mere mortals, that they are prepared to risk everything in pursuit of their ambitions, that is why they have so much energy, so much drive, as it is exciting and the rewards can be massive, their ideas can be wild, innovative and game changing for the world in which we live.

So, does that mean the rest of us cannot be entrepreneurs! Well, I do believe that we can all be entrepreneurial and enterprising, we might not want to risk everything, but we can come up with great ideas and great business concepts and run very successful companies or be great employees, but whether this will be enough to change the world, well that’s a question…        

  

5th Matrix Free Online Careers resource for schools and colleges

Young Chambers on-line careers/networking account for young people is now available to all schools and educational establishments free of charge, all that we ask is that you use it.

We have done this in order to support and assist young people into meaningful employment and to assist schools and colleges in this important task. And this task has never been more important as we know from recently published information,  which has highlighted, that we have over 20% of young people aged 16 to 25 who are unemployed!!!!

If you look at the economy as a business you have to make long term plans to ensure that the human resource is in place to grow and protect your business in this case we are talking about protecting our future economic well-being across the country.  Having this rich, valuable commodity coming out of education into unemployment, in such large numbers, could be seen as somewhat of a crisis if nothing is done to resolve this issue.

Hence we believe that placing the responsibility for this into our local communities and connecting these young people directly with local business can form a part of a solution to reduce this unwelcome statistic. Young Chamber assists in creating a robust local framework connecting local business with schools in a consistent way for the benefit of all. Add to this the availability of the 5th Matrix, which encourages young people to think about and plan for the jobs that they want to pursue in the future, will also encourage them to think about the qualifications needed to achieve their aspirations.

This can only be good for young people, for schools, for local business and for the local and national economy.   Now who would not want to support this as it is a win, win, win for all concerned.

If you are a school or college and would like us to support all your good by providing your young people with access to the 5th Matrix contact us at info@youngchamber.com

Skills Factor 2012

Hi just to let you know that the Skills Factor 2012 competition opens today for all schools and educational establishments across the country to enter a team to compete against each other with the final taking place on the 4th of July at a very well-known London venue. The Skills Factor is an on-line competition that gets teams developing an idea from concept to reality. We are not just looking for the best idea, but also, evidence of skills learnt along the way, as part of the process of entering the competition. The wining finalists will then be invited to London to compete against each other, live on stage, in front of a panel of experienced business men and women.So don't delay enter your team today on-line at youngchamber.com

Something Interesting

Hi I just like to let you know that we have a fantastic new product available to schools across the country and the world for those schools who would like to trial this else where; which is(drum roll) Young Chamber's 5th Matrix Web based platform. This is designed to provide a contemporary framework for all young people from all backgrounds to use to assist and prepare them for future careers and jobs, as all young people are important.
Now I know I might be a little biased but I do think this product is excellent and when you see it I am sure that you will all concur. Young Chamber is a not for profit, non political, organisation based in the UK who work through the international network of Chambers of Commerce through the Global Business Network the 'International Chamber of Commerce'(ICC). We are about positive economic development for all local communities connecting local business and their schools in order to help young people find their place in the world, everyone can benefit. If you are a business, school, student, parent or teacher and want to be involved contact us at www.youngchamber.com

OK we are now back into the groove of Young Chamber activity for the new school term.
Over the summer months and now coming into autumn there is considerable comment within the media around increasing numbers of high unemployment of young people aged 18 to 25 and that schools and business have got to work together to address this.
This is obviously a good point and we should all be working together to try to ensure that young people have the best opportunities to aspire and achieve their goals and ambitions. Now this framework of provision needs to be accessible to all young children from all backgrounds. When you think about this it is a considerable challenge to achieve - 'engaging with all young people' and more often than not this is why I believe that the various national initiatives tend to be focused on minority  group initiatives as opposed to trying to engage the majority which is seen albeit subconsciously, as being too difficult. Now this is where I kind of disagree as I am an ardent believer that we should be working for the benefit of all young people.
This is why the work of Young Chamber is pretty important in that it is designed to work with all young people from a diverse range of talents and backgrounds which will form the foundation of future societies. Our job is to galvanise the enthusiasm of the local business communities from across the country to support and work with their colleagues within the education system to assist all our young people achieve their plans and ambitions. Now this cannot wait until they are 16 years of age before we have a chat about what they want to do when they grow up, some of them have had ideas since they were 11 years of age and younger.  Our collective challenge is to assist young people to develop and cultivate their ideas about what they want to do when they leave education way before 16.
Just think of the potential benefits for society if we start to link up their life aims and ambitions with their education from aged 11, think about the self motivation that kicks in when a young person starts to link what he or she needs to do in school to attain their aspirations. I think that this will assist schools with their educational levels of attainment as well as assisting young people get the jobs and careers that they dream of. What would this mean for businesses, well they would have young people entering the work place having some idea of what business expects of its workforce; what would the benefits to the local and national economy be; well it would grow and develop as you would have a far greater number of people in the workforce doing the jobs and pursuing the careers that they had chosen and thought about and planned for. As a work colleague of mine regularly says to me 'this is just a thought'