How our academy is turning the tide for young people

Our academy members may not have academic qualifications but they do have something very special. A hunger to learn, a drive to succeed and a blind spot to their talents.

Rightly or wrongly, the academy has become a personal campaign spurred by seeing how my daughter and her peers’ careers are catalysed through a connectedness and social acumen that so many young people don’t enjoy.

“All face challenges that have acted as barriers to their academic and career development: adverse childhood experiences, addiction, mental health problems, young parenthood and a variety of stark and more subtly difficult familial circumstances”

The academy creates career opportunities, not apprenticeships or work experience.

We’ve recruited our first 10 members through a rigorous process and we are paying a salary commensurate with sector graduate schemes.

All academy members are customers or from families of customers, either through our housing or support services.

All face challenges that have acted as barriers to their academic and career development: adverse childhood experiences, addiction, mental health problems, young parenthood and a variety of stark and more subtly difficult familial circumstances.

We’re providing plenty of support to them to ensure that they have every opportunity to thrive, but this isn’t charity – they’ve had to work hard to get the job and we expect them to do the job. Like on a graduate scheme, they move between placements across our group, they have mentors and we have a full-time academy co-ordinator making sure the scheme is fully supported.

Thankfully, our academy stars are swimming, not sinking; learning to navigate the working environment; finding their voice; deciphering the jargon that litters our business.

We’re learning fast, too. In one stroke we have significantly increased the number of young people in our team. Young people with diverse, fresh perspectives and no lack of capacity to see things as a customer.

Pobl might have indulged my passion for the scheme but the academy is already a positive, invigorating force within our business.

“We’re learning fast, too. In one stroke we have significantly increased the number of young people in our team”

I have every confidence that within Pobl, within our sector and within our region the academy members will go on to make a huge difference.

I’m equally confident that we are creating a ripple effect, in families and communities where higher education and professional careers are rare outcomes.

We are seeking to raise horizons, matching the ambitions with a route to career development that recognises individual talents and needs.

For some communities, in post-industrial South Wales, it can sometimes feel like the tide has gone out and there is little power to pull it back in.

But, as leaders, we all have the power to create a safe passage back to opportunity and I will continue to follow my passion for doing so.

Amanda Davies, chief executive, Pobl Group