H&F’s Youth Council will lead a discussion on improving skills for young people in the borough.
Minutes:
Hiba Al Moosawi (H&F’s Youth Mayor) and Emma Ghanem (Youth Council member and Youth Parliament candidate) addressed the committee and said one of the Youth Council’s key manifesto commitments was on improving work experience in the borough. They highlighted how important work experience was to young people – both to understand what path to choose in higher education or training and for accessing employment. To understand the issue in more depth the Youth Council held a workshop with young people to discuss their experiences of work experience and what could be improved.
The feedback from the workshop showed that most young people found work experience through friends and family – which disadvantaged pupils without those connections. In response to this the Youth Council proposed a centralised website that collated work experience from all over the borough that all schools could access and cascade to their pupils.
Young people felt work experience in the areas of education, politics and business were lacking. They also found that some providers weren’t teaching pupils useful skills – they were just left to make coffee or do the photocopying. They also noted that work experience with age limits was an issue for pupils. Some placements were only for those over 16 for example.
The Youth Council proposed a leaflet that was sent to all young people in the borough that signposted to a central pool of work experience opportunities. They also wanted the Council to reach out to businesses and organisations to increase the number of high quality placements.
Steve Miley (Director for Children’s Services) applauded the proposals and said officers would consider them. He asked for clarification, what was the ideal length of time for a placement and when they would be most useful (i.e. what school year)
Hiba Al Moosawi (H&F’s Youth Mayor) said work experience was vital in years 10 and 11 (14 to 16 yrs. old) and the placements needed to be a week or two so there was the time to learn new skills and really understand what the job entails.
Vic Daniels noted that a potential obstacle for businesses was the issue of liability. The Council could provide support and insurance for businesses to encourage them to offer placements. The Chair noted that she had previously worked for H&F organising work experience and the Council’s insurance used to cover work experience if it took place during term time. She asked officers to check if this was still the case – and how it worked for Academy Schools.
Steve Miley asked how many pupils were looking for work experience each year. The Youth Council members said most young people wanted it but many didn’t speak up about it because they felt their voices didn’t make a difference.
Councillor Sue Macmillan addressed the committee and said she thought good quality work experience was incredibly important for young people to help them chose their path for the future. She noted that when companies were hiring, those with relevant work experience were naturally more attractive to employers but that often meant those with better connections were given an unfair advantage. This was a huge problem for social mobility. She went on the say that work experience was a priority for the Administration and she gave a commitment that once H&F was out of the tri-borough and took back control of this service, the Council would be looking to make big improvements in this area.
Councillor Alan De’Ath noted that one of the problems with work experience was that the majority of schools did it at the same time – which meant that pupils were all competing for the same (relatively) few places. If it could be staggered there would be many more opportunities available to a wider group of pupils. Hiba Al Moosawi agreed – her school did it at a different time to many others in the borough and that meant they found it far easier to get placements.
The Chair thanked Hiba Al Moosawi for all her inspiring work as Youth Mayor of Hammersmith & Fulham over the past year and wished Emma Ghanem the best of luck in the upcoming Youth Parliament elections.