Work the Change

Giving disadvantaged young people the skills and confidence they need to become employable

We help disadvantaged young people escape a future of low self-esteem, poverty, and being excluded from society. We do this by helping them to develop the self-confidence, skills and experience they need to fulfil their potential and become employable.

Giving young people confidence going into the job market

Work the Change is an employability training programme for young people in the UK designed to ease the school-to-work transition. Helping young people understand what employers are looking for and how they can assess their own skills and experiences. The programme itself is CV-worthy, honing communication, presentation and teamwork skills and requiring proactivity and professionalism.

  • Knowing Yourself

    Through self-assessment, this module asks students to identify their hobbies and interests and look at how they can build life skills to improve confidence and self-esteem.

  • What Employers Want

    By identifying the qualifications needed to pursue their dream career, this module challenges students to think about and develop non-academic skills that employers are looking for.

  • My Preparation

    This module asks students what they can do now to develop their CV and take control of their own progress, in preparation for the job market.

  • Navigating the Workplace

    Through hands-on activities students learn about the importance of teamwork, planning, initiative and problem solving.

What impact does Peace Child make?

  • After taking part in the training, young people are able to:
  • Understand how to improve their self-esteem and self-confidence
  • Identify what their strengths and weaknesses are
  • Recognise where they need to improve
  • Learn how to set goals for themselves
  • Know how to develop core skills valuable to any employer, such as communication skills
  • Understand where to get resources to support lifelong learning and self-improvement

What are the proven results?

Peace Child developed this project working extensively with youth and educational experts and with young people across the UK. The project has already transformed the lives of over 2000 young people across the UK.

  • 83.3% of young people said the project helped them understand what they are capable of.
  • 90% said the project helped them learn how to set goals for themselves.
  • 100% said it helped them understand how to come across in interviews.

Why is Peace Child needed?

Across the UK, thousands of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds leave school without the skills and experience they need to get a job. As a result of being unemployable, they get trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty. This is damaging for them, for their families and for their communities. Peace Child addresses this problem by empowering young people from socially and economically deprived backgrounds. It gives young people the self-confidence, skills and experience they need to become employable.

How does Peace Child help?

Peace Child trains young people aged 16-18 to help them identify what skills and experience they need to become employable and to increase their self-confidence. These young people, supported by highly skilled trainers, go on to deliver the training to younger pupils aged 14-15, helping them to gain more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the skills needed to secure employment. This unique, youth-focused, peer-to-peer approach makes the programme highly effective as young people engage more with their peers than with adult-led training. This approach also ensures the programme is sustainable.

What it involves

We run a one-day training for 16-18 year olds, which teaches them how to deliver employability workshops to their younger peers. These 16-18 year olds are dubbed mentors, and when their training is complete, they deliver the workshops, under our supervision, to the 14-15 year olds. Following on from these workshops, we also provide up to ten mentorship sessions for those 14-15 year old students requiring additional support in confidence-building and gaining vital skills.

  • Preliminary discussions

    PCI visits school and meets with Heads of 16-18 year olds and 14-15 year olds to find out what the school is already doing and discuss the programme.

  • 16-18 year old Students' Training Programme

    PCI runs a one day training for 16-18 year olds on the workshops they will present to their 14-15 year old peers

  • Presentation Day

    Introduced by a short assembly, 14-15 year old students are split into classes and revolve from one module to the next, delivered by the 16-18 year olds with trained PCI staff overseeing activities.

  • Mentored Sessions

    Following on from workshops, we also provide up to ten mentorship sessions for the 14-15 year old students requiring additional support in confidence-building and gaining vital skills.

Enhance the employability of young people in your school, children’s home or homeless shelter