Bringing young people and employers together through communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and curiosity.
Overview
We continue on our promise of bringing more regular events by delivering exciting events that educate, engage and connect our community. This time, our event focused on supporting young people into work.
Young people are facing a significantly tougher employment market than older workers. Across the UK, 16.4% of economically active 16–24-year-olds were unemployed between May and July 2026—more than three times the national unemployment rate of 4.9%, which itself includes younger workers. The challenge is even more acute in London: unemployment among 16–24-year-olds reached 24.6% between November 2025 and January 2026, compared with 7.5% across London’s workforce as a whole. Behind these figures are young people struggling to secure their first opportunity, often caught between employers seeking experience and a shortage of entry-level roles through which to gain it. This is why we felt it was important to tackle the issue head-on by bringing young people, employers and support organisations together at our event—creating a space where local young people could build confidence, make meaningful connections and gain practical guidance towards employment and training. With support from The South London Partnership and as part of London’s Youth Trailblazer, we delivered a well-thought-out event designed to show how to get started, stand out, and build connections.
What does it really take to get that first opportunity?
That question brought young people and employers together at UP in Croydon for WOW: The World of Work – Climbing UP The Ladder.
We started the afternoon with an award-winning TV producer’s career story to an honest employability panel, four hands-on business challenges and, finally, networking where young people and employers could continue the conversations face to face.
The idea was simple: bring both sides of the world of work into the same room and get them talking, thinking and working together.
Starting with the real story behind a career
After arriving at Weatherill House, everyone headed into the Virtual Production Studio at UP for the welcome and introductions.
Then Jyoti Mehta took the floor.
Jyoti is a Croydon-born TV producer and director who has worked on more than 50 documentaries. In 2026, her work on Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz won a BAFTA, followed by an Emmy two weeks later.
But her story at WOW started long before the awards.
While studying English Literature at university, Jyoti knew she was good at research, but had little idea where that skill could take her.
Then a conversation changed things.
During a summer job, she asked another student what she planned to do after graduating. The answer was that she was going to become a researcher on Blue Peter.
For Jyoti, it was a lightbulb moment.
Growing up within an Indian community where she knew nobody working in media, television had never felt like an obvious career. Suddenly, she could see a route into it.
Finding that route took much longer.
Hundreds of CVs, applications for work experience and attempts to enter the industry followed. Jyoti eventually took a job in television subtitling and spent around six years there while continuing to build skills, interests and connections outside work.
Her involvement in interfaith work eventually became part of her niche. That expertise opened an opportunity to research a documentary about Hinduism. That experience then helped her secure an interview for her first BBC role.
Even the years spent subtitling television had been building something. Watching and transcribing television every day had taught her far more about how programmes worked than she had realised.
Her message to the room was clear: keep developing skills, have conversations, recognise what makes you different and trust your journey.
The Employability Exchange
From Jyoti’s story, the conversation opened up to the room.
We were delighted to welcome Liz Barclay as the facilitator of our panel discussion. Liz is the former UK Small Business Commissioner and a highly respected champion for small businesses, with extensive experience supporting entrepreneurs and advocating for fairer business practices. She also brings a strong background in broadcasting, including her work with the BBC, which was evident in the warmth, insight and professionalism with which she guided the conversation. Liz ensured that every voice was heard while keeping the discussion focused on the challenges facing young people and the practical action needed to improve their employment opportunities.
Our panel consisted of representation from our local authority, Croydon Council, by Cllr Andy Stranack, cabinet member for children and young people. A local employer, Sheetal Shah, accountant and partner at Innovi; and an HR expert Mikala Ayres, small business owner and subcontractor to various larger commercial businesses and charities. This section allowed our audience to hear what employers are looking for and offered insights from professionals on the challenges both employers and applicants face in this new AI age. All three panel members shared their own career pathways, showing that most careers are not linear and getting started has always been a challenge.
For Sheetal Shah, the changing world of work means employers increasingly need to recognise capabilities that go beyond purely technical training. He highlighted five of them: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and curiosity.
Mikala Ayres brought the HR and learning perspective. Recognising potential means creating opportunities to understand how somebody thinks, communicates, learns and responds to challenges, including experiences they may have developed outside a traditional workplace.
Cllr Andy Stranack spoke about identifying your passion, building experience through volunteering and creating stronger connections between young people and opportunities across Croydon.
And Liz Barclay highlighted the value of creative industries in developing a wider range of capabilities, including understanding different issues and learning how to tell stories effectively.
The audience joined the conversation too.
One participant picked up on the idea of finding a niche and developing the thing that makes you distinctive. Another young person asked where to begin with an idea for their own business.
Then Sheetal Shah brought the discussion back to interviews.
Being able to tell your story matters. Experience gained through retail, hospitality or another role can give someone real examples of communication, responsibility and working with people, even when that job is outside the career they ultimately want to pursue.
When the panel was asked what could make an employer look beyond a young person’s lack of direct experience, Mikala Ayres focused on three things:
Willingness to learn. Resilience. Communication.
The conversation was increasingly about potential, not simply job titles.
Then everyone had a chance to put those ideas into practice.
Four challenges. Four real-world business problems.
Young people and employers split into mixed groups for a Creative Digital Sprint.
Each group received a different business problem and had to develop a solution together.
Challenge 1: Teamwork – The People Puzzle
Facilitated by Mikala Ayres, the first group became a small bakery preparing to launch a home-delivery service.
Their task was to decide how responsibilities around customers, promotion, operations and delivery should be divided.
They started with the people.
Who was creative? Who preferred working behind the scenes? Who could take on marketing, customer service, sales, strategy or technical responsibilities?
By the time they presented their solution, the group had considered everything from market research and customer service to compliance, insurance, recruitment, equipment and packaging.
The lesson was practical: understand people’s strengths and build the team around them.
Challenge 3: Systems – Fix The Flow
Facilitated by Lindita Saliasi, another group tackled a small catering company experiencing the growing pains of success.
Enquiries were coming through email, Instagram and WhatsApp. Jobs were being missed and customers needed a smoother experience.
The challenge started with workflow, but the discussion quickly became about people too.
The group explored communication across a business, understanding how different roles fit together, building trust between employers and employees and creating the psychological safety for people to raise issues and suggest improvements.
A stronger process depended on the people inside the process feeling able to contribute to it.
Challenge 2: Talent – Hire Different
The blue team, facilitated by James Cunningham, tackled recruitment.
A five-person events company needed to recruit a junior project coordinator, and the candidates had limited previous industry experience.
So the group explored different ways to recognise potential.
They discussed transferable skills, personality and psychometric tools, video introductions, practical assessments, communication and time management.
They also looked at experiences outside traditional employment. A hobby, project or other activity could reveal skills that a conventional CV might never bring to the surface.
When two young participants presented the group’s thinking, their solution gave candidates several different opportunities to demonstrate who they were, how they interacted with people and what they could bring to a team.
Challenge 4: Growth – The £1K Challenge
For the final challenge, Lisa Allen facilitated a group working on an independent Croydon bookshop.
Saturday sales had fallen by 25%. The team had £1,000 and four Saturdays to bring more 18 to 30-year-olds through the door.
The ideas came quickly.
An interactive murder mystery. Football biographies and guest appearances. Cocktail-making linked to books. Fashion. Local collaborations. Book signings. Instagram, TikTok and content creators.
Different participants brought different interests into the solution, turning their own understanding of younger audiences into ideas the bookshop could actually use.
One question helped focus the group:
What would actually give a young person a reason to walk into the bookshop?
From there, the challenge became about more than advertising.
It became about creating an experience.
Sharing the ideas
The groups came back together and presented their solutions to the room.
Four challenges had produced four very different conversations, but the same skills kept appearing: communication, teamwork, creativity, curiosity, problem-solving and confidence.
Young people had brought their perspectives into business problems.
Employers had shared experience.
And everyone had spent time working alongside people they may only have met earlier that afternoon.
Then those connections moved downstairs.
From business challenges to real conversations
The next part of WOW brought everyone together for networking, CV and portfolio support, career conversations, pizza and drinks.
The group exercises had already broken the ice.
Now young people could speak directly with employers and professionals about their own next steps.
CVs were discussed.
Contacts were exchanged.
People talked about industries, applications, business ideas and career routes.
Young people could ask employers what they genuinely look for. Employers could hear directly from young people about their ambitions and the challenges of trying to take that first step.
Employers were also invited to share opportunities they could offer, from job shadowing through to potential employment opportunities.
It brought the afternoon back to something Jyoti had talked about right at the beginning.
Sometimes one conversation can change what somebody knows is possible.
That principle sits behind UP NETWORK too: bringing people, businesses, knowledge and opportunities together and creating connections that can continue beyond the event.
And for anyone thinking about what comes next, UP can help you start a business, grow an existing business, find the right workspace, create professional content and build valuable connections.
One afternoon. Plenty of possible next steps.
WOW started with Jyoti describing the conversation that helped her discover a career she had never considered before.
By the end of the afternoon, young people and employers had created hundreds of opportunities for conversations of their own.
For one person, the next step might be improving a CV.
For another, meeting someone working in the right industry.
It could be finding a mentor, discovering a transferable skill, exploring a business idea, securing work experience or making a new professional connection.
Different routes. Different starting points.
What matters is having an opportunity to take the next step.
Making WOW possible
WOW: The World of Work was supported through London’s Get Britain Working Youth Trailblazer. The programme is funded by the UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions, with funding provided to the Greater London Authority and London’s sub-regional partnerships, including South London Partnership.
Thank you to the organisations helping create more connections between young people, skills and opportunities:
UK Government
Mayor of London / London City Hall
South London Partnership
The wider Youth Guarantee is intended to expand routes into employment, education and training for young people, while London’s Youth Trailblazer is testing more joined-up approaches to supporting young Londoners.
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