HOW EASY IS IT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO GET THEIR FIRST JOB? PART 1

Recognising how hard it is for young people to even get a job interview, we refocused our employability project. With the local school no longer providing work experience, our focus was to get work experience placements for those who had just left school to build experience and aid in opportunities getting their first job.

Working for free can be a tough sell so not every young person was on board. We measured two cohorts of 10 young people aged 16-17 over a 3 month period

Cohort 1 - Work placement experience
Cohort 2 - No work placement experience

Our results are shown in the data picture below and here are some insights and future actions we will take.

Work placement experience seems to significantly boost job interview offers. Cohort 1 averages over 4 times the offers compared to Cohort 2, indicating a clear advantage for those with prior experience.

Cohort 1 exhibits greater variability in interview offers, with offers ranging from 0 to 4. This suggests that while experience generally aids, factors week-to-week can still influence outcomes significantly.

Cohort 2 shows a consistent stagnation at low levels with most weeks having zero offers. Despite occasional slight improvements, offers never rise above 1, indicating experience prior to interviews may be critical for better consistency and results.

This deviation indicates limited success in getting offers without prior experience.

ACTIONS COHORT 1

Cohort 1 job interview offers, range from 0 to 4 offers per week. While some individuals secured multiple interviews or offers, others struggled, highlighting an opportunity for targeted bespoke support for those who didn't secure offers.

Week 5 stood out with 4 offers, indicating a successful campaign for job offers during this week. looking at whatever strategy or circumstance led to this success could be beneficial.

Over the 12-week period, Cohort 1 received 13 offers in total and secured offers 58% of the time. However, with offers received in only 7 out of 12 weeks, there is room to improve so to secure more consistent outcomes across weeks.

ACTIONS COHORT 2

Cohort 2's consistently lower offer rate underlines the importance of work experience in job success. Mentorship or simulated work experiences might bridge the gap towards Cohort 1

Maximum interview offers in any given week for Cohort 2 reached 1 offer, occurring in Weeks 3, 11, and 12, representing modest success against a backdrop of generally low offer numbers.

Overall the data clearly shows that having volunteer work experience placements give young people an advantage when seeking paid employment for the first time

In part 2 we will look at how many interview converted to job offers.

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