Essex County Council are proud to have been recognised as a Youth Friendly Employer.

Being a Youth Friendly Employer demonstrates that we maintain the five core principles of the Good Youth Employment Charter.   Read on to find out how we have achieved this recognition.

Creating Opportunity

We offer quality work-related learning experiences which are both digital and in person. Our dedicated Entry to Work team currently run seven programmes, with more programmes being added for 2022.

We ensure that our opportunities have a good learning outcome, and we do this by offering training workshops for all our programmes to support career aspiration and improve employability skills.

Recognising Talent

We acknowledge that some young people face additional barriers into work, which is why we continue to break down the barriers that our young people face. We already operate a guaranteed interview scheme for care leavers and veterans and are a disability confident employer.

We provide candidate support during the recruitment process and we collaborate with colleagues across the organisation and in many teams such as the Leaving and Aftercare team and Targeted Employment Team.  These collaborations have helped us put together support packs such as the Care Leavers Interview pack.  

Fair Employment

We offer good quality employment opportunities for young people, such as apprenticeships, graduate roles, entry level jobs and supported internships.  This year, to date, we have welcomed over 165 new colleagues into the organisation through our entry to work routes.

We regularly review workforce’s development plans and look for opportunities to employ young people. 

Developing People

We provide an award winning welcoming and onboarding programme with regular ‘keep in touch’ points from the date you accept you offer to the day that you start with us.

We create and regularly update our development programme which supports each young individual to fulfil their potential.  We do this alongside our onboarding programme, offering extra workshops for our colleagues to attend such as #Iamremarkable, a Google initiative empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.

Youth Voice

We actively provide opportunities for youth voice to be heard, with numerous networks to join including the Young Persons Network

If you’d like to find out more about how we were recognised as a youth friendly employer please get in touch with the Entry to Work team at work.placements@essex.gov.uk

Find out more about the work that the Entry to Work team do here.  And, for all the latest vacancies search and apply now.  If you don’t see a role that matches what you’re looking for right now, please join our talent pool. Tell us about the type of roles you are interested in and we’ll notify you if they become available.

We look forward to receiving your applications!