This #EducationNeedsYouthWork Week, David Brackenridge, CEO of Venture Scotland, discusses youth work’s unique and vital role in helping young people navigate the transition into employment.
For many young people, the transition into employment is not straightforward. It’s a complex and overwhelming journey shaped by their wellbeing and personal experiences. Youth work plays a unique and vital role in helping young people navigate this transition, and at Venture Scotland, we see every day how relational, person-centred support can open doors that once felt firmly closed.
Through our long-term, outdoor-based personal development programme, we meet young people where they are, guiding and empowering them to the next best step. Our approach begins with relationships. Before any young person can think about training, education, or employment, they need to feel safe, valued, and understood. By offering young people the skills and opportunities to improve their confidence and resilience, our work enables them to take an active role in their lives, relationships and communities.
The young people we work with are often not in education, employment or training. Many of the young people face significant barriers – poor mental health, isolation, lack of stability, or difficult past experiences, and frequently describe a poor relationship with school and figures of authority – impacting their confidence and self-belief.
“I was always told that if I didn’t stick in at school, I’d end up a nobody on the streets and that I’d never amount to anything. I took it to heart and stopped trying. I wasn’t good enough to get an education; therefore, I wasn’t good enough in general. I had zero confidence and so I isolated myself in my bedroom.”
The first step of empowering a young person who has no confidence and doesn’t feel good enough to engage with education or employment, or indeed society at all, must be rebuilding their sense of self. A young person who has no confidence is not making plans for their future and are not identifying paths they need to take to get closer to a job or opportunity. The first step must be to build confidence and self-esteem alongside self and social awareness. This isn’t a quick task. That’s why sustained support, like Venture Scotland, is essential. These feelings of isolation, mistrust and low self-worth have built up over years. It makes sense then, that they take time and consistency to dismantle and rebuild.
Youth work offers young people the chance to discover who they are and what they want. Through outdoor challenges and group activities young people explore their interests, develop transferable skills, and gain the confidence to pursue pathways they may never have imagined.
When young people learn how to manage stress, set boundaries, communicate effectively, and care for their own physical and emotional health, they are far better equipped to thrive in the workplace and beyond.
Education Needs Youth Work because not every young person learns in the same way. Youth work offers an alternative pathway that inspires and challenges young people to take what they learn into every facet of their lives, from their communities and relationships to education and employment, with confidence, self-belief and hope.