Career development
YourWork Experience
YourWork Experience gives young people the opportunity to gain six week’s work experience within two companies out of the 240 businesses involved in Business In The Community. In exchange for volunteering their time, the young people are taken through a course of work in their desired field, given the opportunity to interact and build relationships outside of their normal peer groups and, if they are successful in making the necessary contribution to the business they are working for, may be able to continue in paid employment.
As part of YourWork Experience, we employ life coaching and neuro linguistic programming (NLP) techniques, such as the use of open ended questions, constructive conversion towards positive decision-making and learning from outcomes of individual situations. These techniques help raise self-awareness, relationship awareness and encourage personal responsibility.
The programme lasts for 14 weeks in total, with the second half consisting of two three-week work placements with a week review in between. Each programme is client-led with emphasis on building confidence and self-esteem.
In-depth interaction is required with referral agencies as this will help identify areas most in need of development and enable targeted assistance. The programme is accredited and the life coaching clients receive is similar to that taken into multinational companies at management level.
The blend of counseling, life coaching and individual keyworking enables the client to understand their potential and realise they can set and achieve their goals. Often this means encouraging clients to improve their basic skills and education, required by the majority of workplaces, and we support gaining access to the relevant courses.
We are currently working with South Bank University and Dr David Cowan to measure the effectiveness of the YourWork Experience programme.