How can your HR skills help young people?

Young people these days may find it harder to join a workforce after leaving education. They have to transition from being told where to be and what to do for five days a week with set holidays to having their own choices in life, and this can be overwhelming for a lot of people. Many schools may not teach their pupils how to survive in the real world as its not part of their curriculum and they might not have the resources or funding to invest into that. Young people may not know what career they want to take in life since they have no real understanding of the wide range of career options there is, and they might settle for the ones they know of. This is where people with experience can come in. With your work experience you can become a resource for young people you may know that are starting their careers or struggling with getting further. With a rise in the unemployment rates, your support can provide young people with the skills they need to get into work.

Your skills can provide young people with confidence they need to start. Once they get to know they can rely on your help, they can become comfortable with discussing their struggles and achievement with their career development. With comfortability comes confidence because they know that can trust your guidance. You can encourage them to search and apply for jobs that they feel like they might not qualify for or may not know too much about, their confidence will still grow because they will learn to explore their options and to not give up when they think that nothing is there for them.

You can be that someone young people turn to when they need help and practice. One important document they will need when staring out is a CV (Curriculum Vitae). CV’s can be difficult to write when you don’t know what to write or have little to no experience to add. With your help you can teach young people how to interpret their life experiences to relate to work skills. Another document some jobs require is a cover letter. The purpose of having one is to explain to the employer the reason they should pick you for the job. Your skills can help them to say the right things especially if you have experience in that field.

You could also give them the support when it comes to interviews. Having an interview can bring instant nerves on people which could cause them to say the wrong things. If you take the time to do mock interviews and discuss ways to improve then they will develop the confidence to complete real interviews without saying panic answers, instead they can calmly think back to when they practiced and answer the best way they can. During the mock interviews you can provide feedback and point out their strengths and weaknesses during the interview. This could be their answers or the body language they carry. You can use your experience to show that they don’t have to be perfect, and that practice will help them to improve.

With your HR skills, you could teach young people to analyse employers and job descriptions with a better interpretation. Employers may not put what they are looking for clearly and make it difficult for people to understand what they truly want. You could teach them to look out for key words and explain what they really mean from an employer’s perspective. You can also teach them the difference between the skills that they desire and the ones that are essential for the job role. Essential skills are the ones they really need for the job and the desirable are the ones employers want but not need, understanding the difference can help them to see that it’s still an option but they don’t fit all of the skills they want. You could also teach young people how to read the interviewer. They can analyse the questions they ask and how they ask it to provide the appropriate reply.

Your HR skills can teach young people to look at different perspectives. They may have a desired job they want to do but might have failed the exams they took to take the only route they know of. You can teach them that there are different routes to go into the role they want and that they don’t have to give up on their dreams. A few examples of routes they can take are through university, college, apprenticeships, and traineeships. You could also teach them that different backgrounds can affect their pathway through life. Less privileged people may not be able to afford to go to university for example and might have had to go straight to work after leaving school to help their family out. Whereas someone from a higher class in society can afford to build up their higher education qualifications without having to worry about finances. You can also teach them that people in different career levels can also struggle. These people may be seen as overqualified for some jobs and can find it just as hard to find a job.