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Youth engagement - Are we our own worst enemy?

Published 24th April, 2023 by Kelsey Hargreaves

Kelsey Hargreaves

Kelsey Hargreaves

Assistant Technical Specialist
BICSc
The British Institute of Cleaning Science

Youth engagement - Are we our own worst enemy?

Kelsey Hargreaves, Assistant Technical Specialist at BICSc, reports.

Many times, when I have spoken to people about engaging the youth into the cleaning industry, industry professionals have said: “We aren’t an attractive industry.” Even I, a younger person in the cleaning industry, have been guilty about perceiving ourselves to be an ‘unattractive option’ to younger people.

At the end of March, I had the pleasure of being asked to join a careers fair at Grace Academy in Coventry to speak to students about career options in the cleaning industry. As I was setting up, there were dozens of different stalls all for different parts of the working world and believe me I can admit I was guilty of thinking “this is going to be a long afternoon, I’m probably not going to get anyone”. It was clear from the set-up that the careers fair was about offering these students advice on careers they may not primarily think about, about breaking barriers and about students being able to approach industries that they had questions about but had never been able to ask questions to.

Here is what worked well at the careers fair:

Understanding:


Understanding just what young people are experiencing, what their qualifications mean, and what qualifications and career progression programmes are available to them.

My starting questions were things like: “What is your favourite subject?” “What is the most important thing you want out of a career when you’re older?” “What do you want your next step to be?”

We need to understand what young people are going to respond well to. Is that a collective youth voice representing the industry at these events? Is it pictures/videos showing the hidden parts of our industry? We don’t need to stand and dictate about the industry. We need to get on their level. This leads me very nicely onto:

Listening:

Those lyrics from The Sound of Silence “People hearing without listening” are way too applicable to many onboarding processes we, as an industry, currently adopt. We need to make sure that we really listen to what people are saying. Many times, a young person knows exactly what subjects they want to study, or what work experience they want with no idea whatsoever about the career they can/want to do after that! We need to listen to where they are in their journey and only then see how we can offer guidance on the way! If we don’t listen; we are set to dismiss ourselves.

Experience and honesty:

Be open about our experiences! People want to hear the truth, not a manufactured beautified version of the perfect life. When I got asked if I had always wanted to work in the industry, my response was along the lines of: “4 years ago I had absolutely no idea of what career I wanted, it was scary, but it made me question what I wanted out of life… for me, I wanted to travel, to teach people (even though I had no idea what!) and I wanted a career where I knew I was making a difference every day. Then, after some hard work and a willingness to learn new things, I found a career that gave me all of that.”

Knowledge and support:

Remember, we are the experts of our own industry. It is up to us to have the relevant information available for young people and anyone else that is interested in our industry. If we don’t know the answer, pass them to someone who does! We need to work as a collaborative industry to entice the new generation of cleaning professionals!

I’m pleased to say at the end of the careers fair, I got in my car with an extra skip in my step, beaming with pride and excitement that the time I had spent at the fair was filled with inciteful questions from young people, even from the ages of 12/13! Questions about the different careers we have available, questions about the training they can do, graduate programmes, apprenticeships, and questions about why I loved my job. At times I even had a queue! It was a day of education for both the young people in the room and me, the industry may not be a “known” option for young people, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t an option that they want to explore!

So, let’s get out there! Let’s talk to the next generation! Let’s share our stories, and our career paths in the industry, let’s keep the dialogue going. Let’s not be our own worst enemies.

www.bics.org.uk

About the contributor

Kelsey Hargreaves

Kelsey Hargreaves

Assistant Technical Specialist

BICSc

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