Globally, 35% of employers report they are experiencing difficulty filling jobs due to lack of available talent; making youth unemployment one of the biggest and most consistent challenges across our communities. In the UK, 82% of Scale-up business leaders list the low levels of skills in the workforce as their single biggest barrier to further growth and 56 % of CBI members list this as the single biggest threat to UK competitiveness in the next five years.
What will we do together?
This partnership builds upon the collaboration Founders4Schools has with Barclays Lifeskills and the Prince’s Trust so that the young people who have attended employability sessions run by one of the partners in the programme will now be offered placements with fast growing innovative companies that drive economic growth in the UK. Activities will extend to organisations like Teach First that Founders4Schools also collaborate with.
We know that addressing unemployment improves individual social and economic prospects and creates broader opportunities for growth and increased resilience.
Helping people gain the vital skills they need to get into work also supports entrepreneurs so they can scale their businesses and create more employment opportunities.
More information and links
Barclays Citizenship’s goal is to create and grow a collection of products, services and partnerships that address unmet societal needs while at the same time provide commercial benefit and a competitive advantage, thus stimulating new innovation and growth. It’s about using core business know-how and working with a network of clients, partners and other stakeholders to achieve this.
Barclays LifeSkills brings business, education providers and young people together by helping to provide the skills needed for work. The programme aims to make young people’s first steps into the job market as easy as possible by offering CV and interview practice and improving access to work experience.
Founders4schools improves the life chances of students by connecting young people with 14,000 business leaders who lead some of the fastest growing companies in the UK in order to raise their aspirations, show them where their education can take them and what the jobs of the future are by the very people that are hiring.