Youth social action can form part of a broad, structured and stable careers programme, building on other careers-focused and classroom-based learning.

The relationships that Careers Leaders, other staff and young people initiate, develop and sustain through youth social action can provide consistency for current and future cohorts of pupils. Our case studies and examples talk about this in greater depth.

Youth social action can provide an opportunity for young people to understand, use and apply labour market information in their local area and beyond.

For example, any employer engaged in youth social action activity could run a session for students on job roles in their sector. Students volunteering in organisations such as schools, care homes, libraries, hospitals or hospices should be encouraged to interact with staff and find out about the range of jobs available within the organisation and wider sector.

This can help young people identify opportunities and ‘gaps in the market’, enabling them to pursue youth social action responsive to local need. It may also help young people (and their teachers) forge new relationships with employers, and subsequently gain experience and skills in areas they identify as relevant and important. You can use our guided preparation and reflection resources to help young people make these links.

Youth social action can provide a way of addressing and celebrating students’ individual needs, giving young people agency over their decisions while also providing stretch and challenge.

Support to access these opportunities should be made available to the most vulnerable groups.

Our examples show a variety of projects that have enabled individual students to develop and undertake youth social action that aligns with their priorities and passions and also challenges preconceptions and stereotypes.

Youth social action opportunities should be made available to young people from all backgrounds, gender and diversity groups, including those with special educational needs and disabilities to enable them to develop a range of skills and competencies. Schools and colleges should be proactive in planning activities and have discussions with students to explore opportunities available to them, using social action activities as a chance to explore career options.

This information should be stored and integrated as part of the student careers guidance records to enable students to evidence the skills gained through youth social action activities to employers.

Youth social action gives students opportunities to apply their classroom learning in new contexts, as well as a chance to develop new knowledge and skills. It also enables individual teachers to support projects that relate to their subject areas and areas of passion. For example, students could take part in environmental campaigning linked to science or geography. This is explored in more detail in one of our case studies showing how passion for youth social action can be developed through curriculum links.

Any youth social action activity which allows the student to develop numeracy, literacy or is subject specific should be followed up by the subject teacher in lessons so that students can identify the relevance between their subject learning and real-world experience. It’s a great idea to involve or inform subject teachers about youth social action projects during the planning stages.
 

Youth social action can give students the opportunity to work with a range of stakeholders both inside their educational settings, and beyond, including employers. For example, where employers or employees support youth social action activities there should be an opportunity for them to speak to students about their career journey, job role, skills and experience of the workplace.

Youth social action activities particularly focused on enterprise skills should be championed. See our examples for a range of different projects that have provided students with encounters with employers and employees.

Youth social action can involve students visiting and experiencing workplaces, as well as opportunities to link these experiences back to their classroom learning. Our examples showcase a range of different projects that have provided young people with experiences of different workplaces.

Any project-based youth social action activity where students take on a particular role which is relevant in the workplace or any activity which requires a visit to a workplace where the students learns about that working environment should be counted.

Youth social action can involve forging relationships and working with a wide range of stakeholders, including Further and Higher Education settings, apprenticeship and training providers.

For example, where a youth social action activity takes place in a FE or HE institution there should be an opportunity for students to learn about the range of courses available at that institution.

The governments expectation is that every student should have an interview with a qualified careers adviser by the age of 16 and a further interview by age 18. Youth social action gives young people the opportunity to experience a wide range of activities and projects and they should be encouraged to talk about these experiences when they meet their qualified careers adviser as part of the interview.