Young People Want to Work But Finding That First Opportunity Can Take Years
For many young people across the UK, finding that first opportunity in employment is becoming an increasingly difficult journey. Applications can stretch across months, rejection can become familiar and gaining the experience employers are looking for can feel impossible when nobody has yet given you the chance to build it.
Recent figures show that around one in eight young people are not currently in education, employment or training. While every person’s circumstances are different, the numbers highlight a wider challenge around how young people move from education, unemployment or uncertainty into meaningful work.
The BBC recently shared the experiences of young people who have struggled to secure employment, including one young person who said it took two years to finally get a job. Stories like this demonstrate something that statistics alone cannot always show: many young people outside employment genuinely want to work but can spend months or even years waiting for someone to give them their first opportunity.
One of the biggest barriers can be experience. Young applicants regularly find themselves competing for entry-level positions that still expect previous workplace knowledge. This creates a difficult cycle: they need experience to secure employment, but they need an employer to give them an opportunity before they can gain that experience.
That is where apprenticeships, work placements, training and genuine entry-level positions can make an important difference. These pathways give young people the chance to develop practical skills while demonstrating their attitude, reliability and willingness to learn in a real working environment.
Repeated rejection can also have an impact on confidence. Starting a job search with motivation is one thing, but maintaining that motivation after dozens of applications without an interview or meaningful feedback can become increasingly difficult. Employment support therefore needs to recognise that employability is about more than producing a CV. Communication, confidence, interview preparation and understanding how to present transferable skills can all help someone feel better prepared for the workplace.
Employers also have an important role in creating change. Previous experience can be valuable, but it should not always determine whether somebody deserves an opportunity. Recruiting for potential, character and willingness to develop can introduce businesses to young people who may not have the longest employment history but could become valuable members of their workforce with the right support.
Stronger employer partnerships can help make this possible. When businesses work alongside education providers, training organisations and community programmes, young people can gain greater exposure to careers while employers can connect with potential talent much earlier. These relationships can create clearer pathways from learning and employability support directly into the workplace.
It is also important to remember that securing a first job can mean far more than receiving a wage. Employment can provide routine, independence, confidence, new relationships and a sense of direction. For somebody who has spent a long period searching for work, finally being offered an opportunity can completely change how they see their own future.
At I’M MORE, we believe every young person deserves the opportunity to build a future defined by potential rather than circumstance. A young person who has spent one or two years looking for work has not necessarily spent that time lacking motivation or ambition. Sometimes they have simply been waiting for the right employer, programme or opportunity to recognise what they could bring.
Reducing the number of young people outside education, employment and training will require continued investment in apprenticeships, employability, careers support, skills development and employer partnerships. But it will also require something much simpler: more organisations being prepared to give young people somewhere to start.
Our mission is to help young people Discover, Believe and Become. Because the first opportunity might only be one job to an employer, but to the young person who has spent months or years searching for it, that opportunity could be the beginning of everything that comes next.
