How Kickstart scheme & redwigwam are helping over 250 young people like Keiran
By: Laura, redwigwam
It’s a reality that a lot of young people are struggling to get a foothold on the first rung of the career ladder.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, 1 in 8 of recent graduates in the UK are unemployed, and unemployment of those who had recently obtained a degree rose to 12%.
Undoubtedly the pandemic has had an enormous impact on the employment landscape in general, but has disproportionately affected young people. Apprenticeships were cancelled and job offers were rescinded, forcing a turn to Universal Credit as a means of support.
In response, the government are providing a new initiative, the Kickstart Scheme, which aims to place young people aged 16-24 who are in receipt of Universal Credit in 6-month paid-role placements to help improve employment prospects.
We're delighted to have been made an official gateway provider of these roles and two young people have joined our HQ team as part of the initiative.
We sat down to have a virtual chat with our new Sales Advisor Keiran, who has joined our sales team, to find out about his work search prior to joining the scheme and his hopes of finding future employment following the placement.
Keiran, welcome to the redwigwam team. Tell us a little more about yourself.
I’m 24 from Glastonbury, Somerset. I was unemployed and on the job hunt prior to joining redwigwam. I’d been applying for between 20-50 jobs a week with no success. It took me four months to actually get an interview – which was for the role I’m completing now with redwigwam.
How did you get to know about and apply for the Kickstart Scheme?
I found out about the Kickstart Scheme from my Work Coach who took ideas I had about the type of skills I wanted to learn and matched me to roles. redwigwam was one of them.
What do you hope the role with redwigwam will give you?
I would like to obtain vital skills such as data entry, customer services, copywriting to help maximise sales, as well as grow my skills of working as a team. Basically, any new skills or opportunities thrown at me!
There are lots of young people out there like you who may be struggling to find employment. What would your words of encouragement to them be?
My advice would be don’t let the job hunting take control of you because I know personally it’s a tough market out there no matter what skills or education experience.
You may struggle to find a job fitting your skills and knowledge. I know it can take a toll on you mentally and it’s tough knowing that you don’t even get a response from half the companies out there BUT - if you are in this situation, my go to advice for anyone around my age is to try the Kickstart scheme and see where that takes you.
