Career mentoring for young people
Career mentoring for young people
Author
Introduction
The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected young people’s employment prospects. Recent ONS data has shown that almost three-fifths of unemployed people are younger than 25, with unemployment rates among recent graduates more than double the rate for UK workers as a whole. However, personalised careers advice in the UK is limited and there are too few digital (and thus scalable) options available.
2021 Award
Erica Sosna (CF 2012) is the founder of Career Matters, a company that empowers employees to design their ideal career trajectory. In 2012, she launched a new model for career mentoring called The Career Equation. This model has transformed outcomes for thousands of adults, helping them into fulfilling careers.
Erica has been awarded one of our Activate grants to tailor The Career Equation model to a younger cohort and deliver a pilot programme of personalised career support for 16-24-year-olds across the UK, in partnership with One Million Mentors. Erica will use the funding to build a free online careers and employability toolkit for practitioners working with young people, which One Million Mentors will embed into its outreach. They will work together to deliver career mentor training for teachers, volunteers and youth workers, and prototype an app to provide further resources.
Through a two-year pilot programme, Erica aims to connect with 200 mentors and reach 400 young people through interactive virtual workshops. In addition, she will deliver a virtual conference and produce a report that shares her findings. Following the pilot, she will provide open access to these resources to teachers, youth workers and other groups working with young people to roll out the model nationally and help thousands more young people into employment and fulfilling careers.
Erica’s Fellowship to Norway and the USA explored transformational education methods in developing life skills curricula for young people.
2021 Award
Erica Sosna (CF 2012) is the founder of Career Matters, a company that empowers employees to design their ideal career trajectory. In 2012, she launched a new model for career mentoring called The Career Equation. This model has transformed outcomes for thousands of adults, helping them into fulfilling careers.
Erica has been awarded one of our Activate grants to tailor The Career Equation model to a younger cohort and deliver a pilot programme of personalised career support for 16-24-year-olds across the UK, in partnership with One Million Mentors. Erica will use the funding to build a free online careers and employability toolkit for practitioners working with young people, which One Million Mentors will embed into its outreach. They will work together to deliver career mentor training for teachers, volunteers and youth workers, and prototype an app to provide further resources.
Through a two-year pilot programme, Erica aims to connect with 200 mentors and reach 400 young people through interactive virtual workshops. In addition, she will deliver a virtual conference and produce a report that shares her findings. Following the pilot, she will provide open access to these resources to teachers, youth workers and other groups working with young people to roll out the model nationally and help thousands more young people into employment and fulfilling careers.
Erica’s Fellowship to Norway and the USA explored transformational education methods in developing life skills curricula for young people.