Welcome to the Youth Hub
Welcome to the Young Adults Employment Hub blog. For our first post, we wanted to introduce ourselves and the project, and explain how we can support young people into employment
Welcome to the Young Adults Employment Hub blog. For our first post, we wanted to introduce ourselves and the project, and explain how we can support young people into employment.
The Young Adults Employment Hub is a partnership between Southampton City Council, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and No Limits. The hub aims to provide a one stop shop for young people claiming Universal Credit who are looking for work. We have two full time Work Coaches from the DWP, a full time and part time Employment Officer from Southampton City Council, and a full time Youth Worker from No Limits.
We work with young people aged 16-25 who live in or around Southampton to find employment. We can you offer support in the following:
- Job searching techniques
- CV writing
- Application forms
- Cover and speculative letters
- Interview techniques
- Assisting with finding apprenticeships, traineeships and Kickstart placements
- Looking for relevant training opportunities
- Advice around debt, housing or relationship issues
- Impartial Information, Advice and Guidance
Our approach is person-centred, which means we recognise everyone is different, and that you have hopes, dreams and potential barriers that are unique. We listen to what you want to achieve and help you set and achieve your goals around employment. We work collaboratively with each other within the hub, drawing on the wealth of experience from the practitioners in the team, as well as signposting to other providers in the city.
But how does this work in practice? Well, once you express an interest in working with us, one of the workers on the hub will contact you for an initial appointment. At this appointment we will ask some questions to find out what experience, qualifications, strengths and experience you have, and find out what you would like to do. It's a chance to get to know each other and find out about your potential barriers to work too. As part of this, we may complete a young person's passport. This is your document, and it allows you to share your information with other agencies within the Young Adults Employment Hub, as well as other professionals you may be working with.
Any documents we complete together will be emailed to you, and we’ll ask for your consent to store the information you give us to allow us to work with you effectively. Once we identify your short-term and long-term goals, we'll write an action plan together with next steps to complete. These will have a timescale and we work together to ensure we achieve these goals. We'll meet as regularly as you need to work on your CV, applications and interview techniques, job search or look for training opportunities. We will also signpost you to organisations who may be able to support you, and refer you if appropriate, all with your consent.
Although we are unable to meet people face to face currently, we are supporting young people on the phone or using video calling technology. We are currently setting up a physical hub in a city centre location in a Covid secure way, so that once we can, young people can meet with us face to face. The physical hub will be a vibrant, interactive centre where professionals and young people can meet. It will be a place to get information, advice and guidance about employment and other support needs. We will let you know more about this in coming months.
In addition to this support, we are also excited to launch our digital hub. This is currently found on Access Southampton and contains all the information young people, their carers and professionals need for support.
If you would like to find out more, please visit our website. To contact us, you can email us at employment.support.team@southampton.gov.uk, call us on 02380 917585, speak to your work coach or leave a note in your Universal Credit journal.
We are looking forwards to meeting you and helping you to achieve your employment goals.
