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Employment and training

Season 1, Episode 4: Employment as youth diversion

Header image for the Catch22 Minutes podcast which reads "Season 1: Youth Employment"

In the Catch22Minutes podcast, we delve into some of today’s major social challenges. We speak to frontline experts, industry leaders and young people, in pursuit of ideas for reforming public services.

The first season focused on youth employment and was presented by Catch22’s Director of Communications, Melissa Milner. Each episode looked at how society can both prepare young people for today’s job market and improve the opportunities available to all young people.

In the UK, more than 720,000 young people aged 16-24 are classed as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Studies show that time spent NEET can have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health, and increase the likelihood of unemployment, low wages, or low quality of work later on in life. It can also increase some young people’s risk of serious violence.

So how can employment-related support divert young people away from risky behaviours? And what does it take to motivate and engage the younger generation and work with them to find purpose and transition into work?

 Darwin Bernardo, Community Engagement Lead at the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, and Stephen Greene, CEO of Apprentice Nation and Rockcorps, join us for this episode. Anthony Owuso-Ansah, who completed The Social Switch Project’s training and is now completing an apprenticeship at Google, also joins us.


Our panellists

Darwin Bernardo

Stephen Greene

Anthony Owuso-Ansah