Engage Young People by Asking Yourself These Four Questions

If I got a penny every time someone shared a problem engaging young people with me, you'd tell me to put my prices up.

This month, I'm giving away the structure I use with educators and corporate clients that are struggling to engage young people in lessons, programmes or job roles.

Awareness:

When you travel on the London Underground, you see thousands of adverts. However, you only remember three.* Does it feel reasonable that out of the nine-hundred-and-ninety-seven ads you don’t remember, at least a handful of their products and services would add value to your life? I’d think so.

Many things exist that we don’t know about. Even still, our awareness can exist in the darkest depths of our minds. I’m aware that the chicken is still in the freezer, but at 4:55 pm you angrily remind me to take it out and the awareness defrosts in my mind.

When young people are thinking about their future development, skills and careers; do you come to mind? Why not?

If you want to get GenZ engaged in your industry, job roles and programmes, then first ask yourself: Are they aware it exists?

Understanding

Despite being recommended the book by several trusted friends, for months I avoided Steven Bartlett’s first book. The reason why? The title “Happy, Sexy Millionaire” implied the book was only for narcissistic wannabes. It did for me.

As it turns out, the book was mocking Steven’s childhood aspirations to be a “Happy, Sexy Millionaire”. My perceptions were wrong. I judged a book by its title. Our understanding can either be true to life, but it can also be misguided or plain non-existent.

When young people find out about our work: What are their perceptions?

Interest/Motivation

During my first-ever job search, I was unemployed for about a year. I read each job available locally and started to understand what they were about. The trouble was, nothing felt interesting.

?We often default to the assumption that young people aren’t interested or motivated towards our careers & careers education. After all, there are one hundred things they could otherwise be doing.

?It was only after a conversation with a friend who was a waitress in a local café that something changed. I already knew what waiters and kitchen porters did and it didn’t sound like fun. Hearing a trusted friend say that it wasn’t that bad and they were hiring sounded more appealing than not having any money. Plus, knowing at least one person who worked there quelled the anxiety of taking on a first job.

?I can't share this story without saying I didn’t last there long. But it was a foot onto the career ladder which started a fruitful career in customer service and sales.

Naturally, one of the questions you can use to refine your engagement with young people is: Are they interested?

Action

There’s a place in the UK where young people spend several hours queueing up to be frightened. The total experience includes feelings of nausea and a fear response from the body.

I’ve always had a love for theme parks although my family hate them. Growing up, I couldn’t access rollercoasters. I was a child and thus didn’t meet the minimum height. No matter how much I was interested, most rollercoaster rides were inaccessible to me.

Believe it or not, some of our initiatives and career opportunities are appealing.

Young people want to get involved. Despite this, engagement is locked behind accessibility; Young parents may struggle to attend midday in-person interviews due to childcare. Your team may struggle to get promoted if they can’t display the right skills. Your recruitment drive misses out on genuine talent because you arbitrarily refine the search for university degrees.

If you want to get GenZ engaged in your industry, job roles and programmes, then ask yourself: Do they want to take action?

I’ve used this four-part structure with clients and during workshops for the last year or so. I’ve found it exceptionally useful to pinpoint engagement challenges which means we can be laser-sharp with our remedies saving time, money and actually solving the problem.

If you are struggling with engaging young people in careers, then have a try answering these four questions.

Jake