Employability skills

Each Fairbridge centre around the country runs courses specifically designed to get young people on the road into employment. In some of these courses they'll visit businesses to get an idea of the types of jobs available, work on writing their CV and practice interview techniques. Many of the young people we work with won't have had any experience of working so just learning about how to behave in a work environment is a huge boost to their chances of employment.

Course example: Learn2Earn

Our Learn2Earn course gives young people business acumen by putting them in charge of their own small enterprise for the duration of the course. Here's how it works:

Watch out Sir Alan and your so-called Apprentices, the Fairbridge Learn to Earn (L2E) graduates will be snapping at your heels before too long. The course is a flagship for basic skill provision, giving a team of young people a budget of £500 to start their own small business.

With the cash in place, our budding entrepreneurs must select a product, design and produce it, and then sell it for a profit. On a recent L2E course, young people chose to produce t-shirts, which they sold at Elephant and Castle market in London. The venture attracted local press attention and made a net profit of over £300 – a L2E record.

Run over four weeks, the course provides an innovative way for young people to sharpen up a whole host of key skills including literacy, numeracy, planning, team playing and business management.

Watch the short film

For details of courses running at individual centres visit their site.