Essential Employability Skills For 14 - 18 Yr Olds

Aim

We help disadvantaged young people prepare to thrive in the world of work by teaching essential employability skills.

Doceo is a community based social enterprise which supports young people aged 14 - 18 from less privileged backgrounds by equipping them with the employability skills they need to be able to move past the disadvantages of their environment. We focus on providing practical support with a particular focus on confidence and wellbeing support to help our students develop sustainable skills so they can be self-reliant post-education.

To help us support more young people, we need your help to develop an online interactive learning series where our students will be able to access support outside of class time, complete skill development projects and access a network of professionals who can mentor them with their future goals. We believe that this combination of support will help our young people ensure the highest possible chance for success in life and will encourage them to transition smoothly into work or entrepreneurship post-education whilst also being valued members of society who give back.

The Problem

The jobs market is not fair for our young people. Our students often miss out on learning essential employability skills required to thrive once they leave education. This means that, even when they achieve excellent academic grades, they can still struggle when reaching the jobs market.  Our research found that:

• Children living in poverty go on to earn 15% - 28% less than those who don't 
• 800,000 young people (12.6% of 16 to 24 year olds) are neither working nor in full-time study and 631,000 (9.3%) are not in any form of education, employment or training (NEET)
• Half of businesses are not satisfied with school leavers' work experience (56%), communication skills (50%), analysis (50%) and self management (48%)

Our research shows that employers are generally unsatisfied with the proficiency young new joiners have in employability skills. Employability skills are increasingly being prioritised, and are highly prized amongst recruiters (ICIMS, 2017). As automation increases these human skills will be increasingly important (Forbes, 2017). There is an increasing need for organisations like Doceo to provide an accessible platform for students to have access to employability skills that will set them up for life.

Through our survey of the young people we work with we have identified the following two issues for young people:

• Interrupted education during the pandemic has made students concerned about accessing quality further training or employment; and
• students are worried about their ability to communicate their concerns with others including their parents and school support systems to receive support.

Why Doceo

Our founders experienced this personally with Zoe and Steph both achieving well academically and pursing an interest in Engineering and Law respectively, but finding that academic grades were not all that was needed to succeed. The ability to communicate effectively, network, market yourself and your professional brand, the characteristics of an entrepreneur needed to thrive in a workspace, and the ability to manage your wellbeing (to name a few core development areas) were equally important in our helping our founders be successful in their careers to date. This is one of the main reasons why our founders started Doceo.

We also prioritse wellbeing workshops for students as we've found that there is mounting economic and social pressure coupled with changes in the exam system causing stress for teens as they feel the pressure about getting good grades. As The Guardian reports the ”system is causing stress-induced illness” (May 2018) and “pupils aren’t given advice and strategies to help them cope” (April 2018). This has been worsened by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Our focus is  on supporting the young people who use our services, to equip them with the skills they need to thrive after education.

Case Studies

How We Work

We provide bespoke workshops, many of which are delivered by volunteers, and belong to Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds to provide role models for the majority of students who use our services. They work with our young people, on the phone or via our online workshops.

• We offer 6 and sometimes more sessions over the course of a year in addition to our flagship mentoring and coaching programme and careers fair. 
• As an organisation we value safety, integrity and community. All our staff and
  volunteers who have direct contact with our students have DBS checks and safeguarding is at the centre of everything we do

Doceo aims to support young people with employability skill development, many of our students come from deprived and disadvantaged areas, where there are barriers to accessing employability skill development including finances and lack of knowledge of existing opportunities. The sessions that we provide are designed to help our students fulfil their potential and so every session is tailored to the needs of our community the goals that they collectively hope to achieve.

• 97% of the students who use our programmes identify as being of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds.
• Up to 27 % of the students who use our programmes are eligible for free school meals. 
• Therefore the areas that we work in have a high proportion of deprived and disadvantaged young people.

Programmes and Offerings

• Events, Webinars and Workshops (online or in-person)
• Workshops for Schools in various communities (online or in-person)
• Aspiring Leaders Programme (flagship, online, 1-week long dedicated programme for high achievers with 9 months mentoring provided on completion of the programme)
• Career Carousel (online or in-person, careers fair)
• Bespoke online resources and materials for development
• Community of peers, graduates and professionals facilitating student growth

Key development areas

• S.M.A.R.T. Goals
• Financial Literacy
• Entrepreneurship
• Communication
• Productivity
• Personal Branding
• Wellbeing
• Commercial awareness
• Critical thinking & problem solving

Various channels to support and meet partner goals

• Event sponsorship and collaboration
• Year-long content and social media collaboration
• Partnership in flagship Aspiring Leaders Programme
• Multiple bespoke, video, graphic content and newsletter packages

How Your Donations Will Help

Your donations will help us keep our personal development workshops and accompanying resources free for 1000 students for the duration of 1 year. Running one workshop for 100 students costs £500 (costs include CRM, zoom hosting, adobe, social media marketing, hubspot and creation of resources) so with your support, we will be able to run 6 workshops and create helpful resources for the students in our community.

How You Can You Find Out More

If you're interested in reading more about our story, please check out our 2022 impact report.

We greatly appreciate any support you have to offer.

This project successfully funded on 20th December 2022