YOUNG PEOPLE'S EMPLOYABILITY AT MORTAL FOOLS
Our dynamic young people’s employability offer is designed to empower young people with the skills, confidence and connections to progress on their employability journey.
On this page you’ll find information about our current offer, on demand content and resources for young people and information about our interventions and commissionable activity. After reading, if you would like to find out more about our young people’s employability work or if you’d like to commission Mortal Fools to run an employability-enhancing intervention email [email protected]
Note: We currently don’t offer work experience – however we hope to offer this in the future. If you would like to gain experience in theatre making, events and creative industries and are aged 13-19years old, Check out our Mortal Fools Ensemble Young Company programme.
On this page you’ll find information about our current offer, on demand content and resources for young people and information about our interventions and commissionable activity. After reading, if you would like to find out more about our young people’s employability work or if you’d like to commission Mortal Fools to run an employability-enhancing intervention email [email protected]
Note: We currently don’t offer work experience – however we hope to offer this in the future. If you would like to gain experience in theatre making, events and creative industries and are aged 13-19years old, Check out our Mortal Fools Ensemble Young Company programme.
OUR CREATIVE APPROACH TO EMPLOYABILITY
We use creative thinking, our co-creation practice, practical fun activities and social science models as the framework to support young people’s personal and professional development. It is a proven methodology that unlocks growth mindset, whilst helping to develop competencies and capabilities in a non-confronting way. It is also a powerful means of learning and establishing new neurological pathways and behaviours, whilst increasing self-awareness.
“Mortal Fools offer young people the opportunity to explore their creative skills, share ideas with their peers, and develop their understanding of employer expectations and skills while enhancing their knowledge about how to successfully transition into work. For those uncertain of what may come next, or where to start, to be offered a safe space with quality support to broaden their horizons is invaluable. And for the young people who have engaged in their employability programmes, the experience has been highly impactful.”
- Vicki Clarke, Employment Partnership Coordinator, Northumberland County Council
We provide holistic support and offer various types of interventions and support that cultivates confidence and supports individuals, meeting them where they are at on their employability journey, acknowledging their needs and understanding their aspirations whilst developing their career, interpersonal and life skills.
Our primary focus is to engage young people who face some type of barrier in their employability journey– the barrier may be connected to various intersectional factors: geographical location, mental health challenges, neurodivergence, socio-economic, socio-emotional, self-perception, social isolation, lack of experience, lack of confidence, skills gap, lack of appropriate support, lack of opportunity, lack of transparency or unhelpful stereotypes and limiting assumptions.
Our primary focus is to engage young people who face some type of barrier in their employability journey– the barrier may be connected to various intersectional factors: geographical location, mental health challenges, neurodivergence, socio-economic, socio-emotional, self-perception, social isolation, lack of experience, lack of confidence, skills gap, lack of appropriate support, lack of opportunity, lack of transparency or unhelpful stereotypes and limiting assumptions.
Our young people’s employability work:
- Feeds into regional and hyperlocal economic activity forming part of a high-impact, targeted and person-centric workforce development programme.
- Moves individuals closer to being workforce-ready and enhance their capabilities.
- Develops interpersonal skills, confidence, self-management skills, decision-making abilities and workplace resilience.
- Is person-centric, flexible and needs-focused – we work with small groups to appropriately prioritise the needs of our participants.
- Supports a wide variety of young people including those with intersectional needs, classified as NEET (Not in education, employment, or training), neurodivergent and/or socially isolated to feel confident and capable as their authentic selves.
- Provides interventions that engage, enable and empower individuals to progress into next-stage employability programmes that might target specific skills, sectors or routes into roles.
- Engages young people who don’t know what they want to do, and what they are capable of and haven’t had the space or opportunity to experiment.
- Holds space using creative methodology and social science models to explore personal development in a fun, practical and non-confronting way.
- Demystifies routes into employment and career pathways into creative sectors in the region.
- Provides the opportunity to achieve a qualification (where appropriate) via Arts Award.
- Makes introductions to referral partners, relevant support organisations, artists/creative professionals and creative organisations.
- Provides a space to engage with specific art forms and creativity for the first time.
- Provides a space for socially isolated young people to meet and engage with like-minded peers in a supportive environment.
- Funnels participants into other opportunities, projects and programmes at Mortal Fools.
- Is a forum for young people to explore and express their thoughts, feelings and insights connected to employability and entering the workforce and through the creation of digital creative content, platforms their voices, needs and lived experiences to decision makers and employers.
CURRENT YOUNG PEOPLE'S EMPLOYABILITY OFFER
We support young people’s employability in the following ways:
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FREE Employability Content & Downloadable ResourcesWe have a range of free resources designed to support parents, carers, teachers, lecturers, and youth workers to have meaningful conversations with young people about their prospective career journeys and creative careers.
This bank of digital content is ever evolving, all FREE and includes activity sheets, webinars, resources, animations by young people, creative sector advice and downloadable content that can be integrated into young people’s employability enhancing activity or utilised during a careers week in school/college/education. |
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CONNECT: Future Ready Future Ready is a creative approach to young people’s employability and skills development. We provide intensive and intentional employability enhancing support for young people aged 14-30 years old and via our various Future Ready creative intervention models we unlock young people’s potential, support their employability and facilitate skills development.
We are open to connecting with organisations, youth settings and funders, who may be interested in commissioning young people’s employability interventions. |
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CONNECT: Creative Futures Creative Futures is a one-day commissionable session for young people aged 14-18years old, using creativity to explore employability, boost confidence and to explore their future. In addition to working with Mortal Fools practitioners, participants explore their careers hopes, dreams and fears via an art form (music, animation, visual arts) and a guest artist.
We are open to connecting with organisations, youth settings and funders, who may be interested in commissioning or sponsoring this one-day interventions. |
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Young CONNECT - Commissionable Employability InterventionsYoung CONNECT is an adapted version of our dynamic and practical training and professional development programme for organisations and teams CONNECT. This adapted version for young people, combining techniques from our creative practice, business development theory, social sciences, neuroscience and our rich experience and knowledge supporting a wide variety of young people.
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Creative Careers Talks & Career Fairs We regularly support Northumberland and North East based young people’s careers and employability events. Through these events, we aim to create meaningful connections, signpost to employability support and resources, and facilitate conversations about careers, employability and skills development.
Our team is especially committed to providing valuable insights into the creative industries and other sectors, helping young people to envision and achieve their career aspirations, whilst demystifying career pathways! We currently support annual and termly events ran by:
If you would like to invite us to a careers event, to support a careers week or day or to deliver a careers talk, drop us an email via: [email protected] and lets chat! We also have two pre-recorded careers talks, that folks are able to use in their settings! |
RECENT EXAMPLES OF MORTAL FOOLS YOUNG PEOPLE'S EMPLOYABILITY WORK
Continuous:
- Mortal Fools annual Peer Facilitator programme gives young people paid work experience within the creative sector in a supportive, enriching environment. This is usually their first-ever job.
- Across our young people’s creative interventions, Ensemble Young Company and youth theatre, we support young people’s skills development, youth leadership skills and employability.
- Supporting Mortal Fools Young Volunteers and Young Trustees in their personal development.
- Supporting early career staff members across their employment with Mortal Fools and offering CPD and training to North East freelance artists, youth workers and Nationally via the Running a Youth Theatre programme.
- Attending Northumberland and North East school and college careers days, giving creative careers presentations and hosting creative pop-ups at community events.
- We are regularly commissioned via our CONNECT training programme to run one-off, open-access, skills-based workshops for freelancers, community organisations and in the youth sector.
- We are regularly commissioned via our CONNECT training programme to run professional development training for businesses and their employees and community organisations and their volunteers.
- Commissioned by North East Combined Authority to pilot a yearlong CONNECT: Future Ready programme across April 2024-April 2025 consisting of 5 interventions, workshops and youth employability consultation supporting and engaging 111 young people.
- Supported Northumbrian Water’s Young Citizens Programme in 2024 by running communication and confidence-boosting sessions for 400+ young people.
- Ran a two-day Workplace Experience intervention for Northumberland College students with intersectional needs and low confidence in 2024.
- Ran a weeklong employability intervention for King’s Trust Get Started Programme in 2023 for young people aged 16-30 interested in getting into the Creative Industries.
- Ran presentation and communication skills training for the annual Newcastle University Graduate Ambassador programme, supporting newly employed young people, as part of their induction.
- Supported NCS programme in 2022 by running presentation skills sessions for 250+ young people.
- Hosted two digital Summer Internships in 2021 via Leeds University.
CONNECT OR WORK WITH MORTAL FOOLS
If you would like to find out more about our young people’s employability work or if you’d like to commission Mortal Fools to run an employability-enhancing intervention please email [email protected]
