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11 Jun 2021 | 15:15

The second live, online forum in ‘The Coalition Tackles…’ series will take place later this month.

Entitled 'Sport tackles the Unemployment Emergency’, the forum will focus on how organisations across the Coalition network are maximising the contribution of sport to the employability of young people, and supporting recovery from the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It will take place on Wednesday 23rd June (1600 BST) and can be viewed without registration at sportfordevelopmentcoalition/coalitiontackles.

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Long-term youth unemployment, where a young person is out of work for six months or more, has risen by 50% over the last year according to Youth Employment UK, while a new study published by the Centre for Social Justice reports that young people feel there is a lack of support around jobs, work experience, skills and training with 85% of 18 to 34-year-olds saying they couldn’t get advice on opportunities and business ideas in their local area.  

During the live forum, which will be made available to replay afterwards as a podcast, attendees will hear the insights of LJ Rawlings, founder and Chief Executive of Youth Employment UK, and from other individuals and organisations contributing to this area, including sports governing bodies, charities and young people. 

Ben is a former apprentice at one charity within the Coalition, Coach Core. He now works as a Community Basketball Coach at Plymouth Raiders, and explained: “The biggest thing I realised when I started with Coach Core was that there was way more to the sporting world than just the coaching on the court. A big part of it for me was learning to interact with people at different levels, talking to a four-year-old child versus talking to the headteacher of a school; adapting the language that I used.” He added: “The skills that I’ve picked up from Coach Core, I will use wherever I go.” 

Coach Core

You can read more from LJ in this blog, in which she considers career prospects for young people in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for an ‘Opportunity Guarantee’ from Government, and how working with the Coalition can help to standardise good practice and make the sport for development sector a ‘better employer’ – in and through sport – with opportunities for all young people. 

Sport for employability is the Coalition’s second key theme for 2021, following on from sport’s contribution to tackling the mental health and wellbeing crisis which arose during the pandemic. The Coalition partnered with Mind to produce its first online forum; a series of podcasts; a round-table featuring sector leaders, policy experts, practitioners and academics; and a report and policy brief.

Watch the live forum on Wednesday 23rd June (1600 BST) at sportfordevelopmentcoalition/coalitiontackles