Get Ready for Work

Work experience has taken a press battering, but for some young people it is the only vehicle available to find a full-time job. These criticisms of work placements were crystallised in the recent case of Cait Reilly who successfully won her argument that she had been forced unlawfully to work for nothing at Poundland. Organisations such as Rathbone…read more

Recent headlines about changes to the benefits system have once again thrown up the question: “do young people really want to work?” Over 90% of youngsters at Rathbone answered with a strong affirmative last time they were surveyed on that subject. But some critics have pointed out that older workers are being preferred in the job market not only…read more

First-year A-level students are about to research which university is the one for them. But with apprenticeships in everything from floristry to fundraising and construction to costume and make-up available, should they really plump for academia? Or would vocational courses or indeed a paid apprenticeship be the best way to help them grow? Preston…read more

Recent claims that careers advice has been reduced in eight out of ten schools caused a political furore. But whilst the jury’s out on whether the decision to ask high schools to secure their own independent careers provision (made in September 2012) has shrunk services, no one can dispute that careers advice for 16-24-year-olds has diminished. Cuts…read more

Young Middlesbrough jobseeker Jack Hill recently hit the headlines when he advertised himself in the ‘For Sale’ column of his local newspaper, The Evening Gazette. So desperate for work was Jack that he placed his plea to employers, “currently studying motor vehicle repair… looking for apprenticeship”, next to the usual ads for toys, prams,…read more

A former Chief Executive hit rock-bottom when, after a six-month spell of joblessness out in the cold, he was finally offered work: as a department store Father Christmas. Far from being a winter wonderland where he could earn money and improve his self-esteem, he saw it as a hinterland; a place where he faced the daily indignity of losing face in…read more

As recently as the 1990s, a good reference was an effective way of getting ahead of the field in securing employment. Spin that back another hundred years to Victorian times and a recommendation – particularly if written by a pillar of the community – was the difference between work and joblessness, especially for those in service. But a study…read more

“I had SAD long before it ever became fashionable” that’s how one Rathbone trainee introduced herself on national radio before explaining all about Seasonable Affective Disorder. Thankfully her wonderful trench humour was one of the factors that carried that particular young person out of despair and unemployment and into achievement and work!…read more

What do Lord Sugar, John D Rockefeller and Ozzy Osbourne all have in common? They never made it to college. Along with Simon Cowell and Henry Ford, they either didn’t go the distance at high school or decided to leave education before sixth form. This lack of academic excellence didn’t prevent them from becoming big successes. So why do so many…read more

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" is one of the most common questions young people are asked. It’s as if adults think children were born knowing that they’re going to be a teacher or were lucky enough to discover the joys of accountancy whilst watching Balamory. We always seem to be forcing kids to think about their future rather than…read more

It’s one of the most important questions facing young people today: what qualities do I need to find work? A sparkling sock-it-to-them CV of course. Plenty of qualifications. Bags of work experience. Good references. But as Ashton-under-Lyne teenager Louis Turner found out recently a little bit of bottle plus a whole heap of charisma can be just…read more

Recently a Rathbone trainee told me he had applied for around a hundred jobs within the last month and had replies to just two applications. Both said, “No” and offered nothing more in the way of help or (gasp!) encouragement. Constant rejection has a massive impact and the biggest challenge facing Rathbone as it launches its new IN2WORK programme…read more

You can’t escape the news headlines. Youth unemployment has hit record levels. But while it is peaking now, joblessness is not a new problem and previous generations – particularly in the 1930s and 1980s - have scaled this mountain before. Rathbone recently returned to the eve of that latter decade to remind everyone that youth worklessness has…read more

Last year was a difficult one for young people hunting for work. But if those jobseekers were female and from the North, the challenge was something like climbing the North Face of the Eiger minus a map, rope and compass! Rathbone Bury trainee Lauren Kennedy can empathise with that frustration. She applied for four jobs a day for the whole of…read more

It’s fair to say that the reputation of work experience isn’t good in Britain. It’s seen by some as drudgery – school pupils forced to photocopy or make tea – or even work-place slavery. The recent image of air-head secretary Bubble bossing about an intern in sit-com Absolutely Fabulous and revelling in the fact that the volunteer doesn’t…read more

Some friends wondered why bubbly public relations graduate Bianca Mulligan would give up so much of her time to volunteer for the Rathbone charity. They did get the warm glow bit about helping young people who had been bullied or have learning difficulties achieve. They just didn’t understand why someone with such an impressive array of qualifications…read more