Early Engagement Early Engagement
Early Engagement
School leavers have a wealth of questions racing through their minds as they contemplate crucial career decisions. With the wide range of choices available, often decisions can prove stressful and confusing. Yet when they do have the opportunity to engage with employers, they often keep these questions to themselves. Founder of Class Careers Christos Orthodoxou expounds how to answer them…”
I
t is a very exciting time for all of us working in the field of school leaver and apprentice recruitment. All the
signs are showing that this source of talent is growing in priority, including the budget allocated to school leaver recruitment and the number of vacancies offered.
However, as a relatively new concept, in the grand scheme of things, school leaver recruitment is a whole new learning curve for all of us involved. It is certainly fair to say tasks like getting into schools, engaging school leavers and inspiring young people enough to complete application forms are not easy. Having worked with Sky TV, Pinsent Masons and M&S and over 500 schools, sixth forms and colleges, here are 4 tips I would like to share about engaging school leavers and apprentices:
Employers
need to ensure they are reaching out to all
young people by visiting a range of geographical areas and a range of institutions.
1. Interaction is the key Many employers spend a lot of money on advertising their vacancies but rarely provide opportunities for interaction. When you open the floor to school leavers and allow them to interact you can allow them to make informed careers choices. For example, when delivering online workshops with M&S into 17 schools, 150 school leavers from 17 different schools asked over 750 questions about M&S and their school leaver scheme. This goes to show how much support they need before they even begin to think about filling an application form.
20 Graduate Recruiter |
www.agr.org.uk
2. Extend your reach to ensure social mobility There are core areas around the country where young people are more engaged with employers, and these tend to be in key cities and industrial hubs. But what about rural and coastal areas? Often, such locations do not make it onto an employer’s agenda for a number of reasons yet provide fruitful opportunities to find hidden talent. Employers need to ensure they are reaching out to all young people by visiting a range of geographical areas and a range of institutions. There is talent everywhere, but more often than not, those in special educational need schools, free schools and even youth clubs are neglected by employers.
3. Collaboration is crucial As I mentioned, school leaver recruitment is a relatively new field and so we need to collaborate and learn from each other where possible. For example, joint events in schools along the lines of ‘An Introduction to school leaver programmes’ are really valuable. The same goes for suppliers: for example at Class Careers, we developed a partnership with RateMyApprenticeship to offer a combined peer-to-peer service that could support school leavers in a unique way.
4. Engage with young people from an early age
Determining the right age to engage with school leavers is a tricky conundrum. The general rule of
thumb for me is the earlier the better. However, the business world often needs immediate results and so it’s often easier to target 16 – 18 year old students, i.e. those at sixth form and college. As the importance of school leaver recruitment increases, many employers will need to engage with young people from an earlier age, in particular, those aged 14 - 16.
We invited them to online workshops with M&S and Sky TV and they did have some great questions to ask as they were beginning to contemplate their career decisions such as what work experience is deemed valuable and what qualifications provide the most value to employers. Employers are in a unique position to answer these questions and simultaneously drive awareness of their opportunities.
To round up, I want to return to my earlier and first point: interacting and talking to young people is where your priorities should lie. Recruiters often utilise media, deliver presentations and post on social media, but very rarely provide opportunities for interaction and the opportunity for school leavers to voice their concerns and questions. Only by doing so can employers expect to receive the level of applications and hires they are seeking. n
Join us at AGR’s School Leaver forum in London on November 25th, 2015 to find out more about school leaver recruitment and meet with other industry professionals. Chris will be presenting on “The school leaver question audit”.
@christos_o1
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