The charity Dallaglio RugbyWorks is soon to commence a pilot with Racing to School to bring some of its beneficiaries into contact with racing’s employment opportunities. To understand why work like this is so necessary, read on…
I’m Dan Ley and I work as a Development Manager at the charity Dallaglio RugbyWorks. One of my key responsibilities is creating a programme of employment opportunities for the young people we engage. These young people are often those who are statistically more likely to miss out on sustainable education, employment or training. They are also earmarked as the most likely to enter the criminal justice system and, increasingly, are living with conditions that are systematic barriers to employment.
The charity’s beneficiaries are either at risk of being excluded or have already been removed from mainstream education, which can very often lead to feelings of being excluded from society. Those young people who have been in that position make up most of the prison population, and those who have been excluded only have a 50% chance of being in sustainable education, employment or training after the age of 16.
A challenge I know too well
It was July 2002 when I ‘officially’ finished compulsory full-time education. A time when the majority of 16-year-olds across the UK were looking at what their next step was -college, employment, apprenticeship, travelling, training programmes. For me, it wasn’t as simple. From a young age I had come to realise I was ‘different’ from most young people in mainstream education. Being diagnosed with ADHD, ODD and Tourette’s at six years old meant that I was labelled from a very early age. This was the early 1990s, however. Mental health support, understanding neurodiverse young people and ensuring adequate support to promote healthy development and learning within schools were almost foreign concepts at that time.
My educational experience was volatile and traumatic to say the least. I experienced seven permanent exclusions before I was 16, had next to no qualifications and a reputation as a ‘trouble maker and problem child’ who would be considered successful if by some miracle I managed to avoid spending time in jail. Throughout my childhood, domestic violence was rife, alcohol was a constant presence and moving around to live with different family members and schools made settling into a routine exceptionally difficult.
In addition to this, I was never engaged in any meaningful employability education in school. I was considered too much of a risk to take part in the usual Year 10 work experience week. CV workshops, information on career pathways, and engaging with local employers were just things that never happened for me. We now know thanks to organisations like the Gatsby Foundation that employability engagement is a key factor in enhancing a young person’s chances of achieving sustainable education, employment or training.
Connecting young people to the job market
Back to July 2002, and with no qualifications, and an unstable home life, I had no idea what to do. I didn’t know anything about CVs or job interviews, or where to look for work, or even what opportunities were available in my tiny corner of West Wales. This isn’t an unusual situation with almost one million young people economically inactive. There has been a 40% increase in young men not in education, employment or training since covid and school exclusion rates are growing year-on-year – this is the reality for an alarming amount of young people across the UK.
Despite these figures, when I talk to industry leaders there is a common theme: concerns around a lack of fresh talent coming through into various sectors, struggles to recruit and engage young people, and an inability to secure the future of industries with current high age workforces commonly highlighted. Young people are struggling to secure careers while sectors are struggling to recruit young people. So where does this issue stem from and how can we improve the connection between young people and the job market?
Creating Opportunities
At RugbyWorks, we know it doesn’t have to be this way. Our last impact statement showed that young people who engage with us for at least a year have a 98.5% chance of achieving sustainable education, employment or training. We have had young people coming out of the justice system, straight into roles with RugbyWorks and then progressing on to new roles within youth work. These impressive statistics are not achieved by the charity alone and collaboration with industry is a vital component of what we do. This is why connecting with organisations such as Racing to School is vital if we are to reduce the trend of increasing youth unemployment.
Recently, we hosted our first employability conference, held at the Solihull Crown Plaza. This was an opportunity to engage with key partners to ensure that we are positioned to best support and impact the futures of the young people we work with across England and Wales. Representatives from sectors including engineering, hair and beauty, retail, factory, youth justice, events, armed forces and of course horseracing were in attendance. We had the opportunity to host panels with teachers and previous career taster day providers to talk about what they see are the benefits of the ‘RugbyWorks way’ and what we need to do to ensure every young person gets a fair chance at a bright future.
We also had the opportunity to hear from a young person who had just completed the RugbyWorks programme. He told us how it had affected his confidence and ability to map out his own career path. In addition, our guest photographer for the day is a RugbyWorks alumni who discovered an interest in photography after attending a related career taster day as part of our programme.
The key event takeaway
It takes educators, employers and charities working together to ensure every young person has access to meaningful education, employment or training experiences and opportunities. We are looking forward to working with Racing to School to deliver some key experiences over the next few months and beyond to ensure some of our young people have the opportunity to learn about what exciting and fulfilling career opportunities exist within British horseracing. Through true collaboration between all stakeholders, we can benefit not just the young people, but the industries crying out for that fresh injection of talent. We can give young people hope and confidence in their future so that my path isn’t their path, with new knowledge, skills and support to fulfil their potential.
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