Case Study: KX Recruit x Camden’s Youth Offending Service

King’s Cross Recruit (KXR) and Camden’s Youth Offending Service are working in partnership to pilot a new flexible work experience programme for 16-18 year olds who are within the youth justice system. These young people have often faced various challenges resulting in exclusion or disengagement from education and learning. With the support of the YOS team and KXR’s strong links to local businesses the aim of this programme is to find flexible work experience that will motivate, inspire and provide valuable experience of the world of work. Our hope is that the young people that take part in this programme will move onto sustainable employment, education or training with focus and enthusiasm and leave the world of offending behind them.

This initial pilot programme has been in partnership with the King’s Cross Estate Services team who manage the public areas and many of the buildings in the King’s Cross estate. This enthusiastic and dedicated team is committed to keeping King’s Cross clean, well-maintained, well-lit and secure at all hours of the day and night.

Vertex deliver the maintenance and engineering aspect of King’s Cross Estate services and committed to offering a flexible, paid London living wage work experience placement to  Braccan,16 from Camden. Wayne Tantrum, Managing Director, goes on to explain.

“Vertex were delighted that King’s Cross Recruit asked us to become involved with the YOS programme and support young people who have been involved in the youth justice system to get their first opportunity into the world of work. One of Vertex’s core values is to: “Encourage innovation and creativity through diverse teamwork and we believe that everyone can make a difference if they are given an opportunity and the encouragement to succeed. We also appreciate how hard it is for young people to get this opportunity in the first instance, especially when they may have lost their way at the beginning of their career.” 

Originally, Braccan was offered two weeks of paid work experience with Vertex, however he has excelled in the role so much that at the time of writing he is now in his sixth week working with them. 

With Braccan’s consent we met with him to get his thoughts and observations on the opportunity so far and to establish if he would recommend a programme like this to other young people who would benefit from first hand experience in the world of work. 

When talking of his past, Braccan spoke about how he was moved into alternative education provision after his struggles in mainstream education at a young age. Following some offending, Braccan was put into contact with the Youth Offending Services, who he has been working with ever since. As he got older, the YOS team encouraged Braccan to begin looking for jobs and other post 16 options and introduced him to Michelle, the YOS Careers Advisor. The YOS team and Michelle helped Braccan think about what kind of work he was interested in. He explained to the team that engineering and construction had always appealed to him, being a practical career route. 

Braccan was introduced to the work experience programme by Michelle and attended an introduction day at King’s Cross Recruit, where he met a range of employers and found out about the different work experience opportunities on offer.  Due to his interests in construction and engineering he decided to pursue the opportunity with Vertex.  Braccan had also started a local course in construction so he felt this option would give him some relevant experience.

The Engineering work experience role consists of a “variety of jobs around the estate to maintain the functioning of systems and electrics, it could be something different every day” Braccan explained. This can be advantageous for new starters to the industry as it gives them a number of engineering and maintenance skills, which could lead to different careers. In addition to this Braccan said he has been gaining wider employability skills such as communicating with the public and other members of the King’s Cross community, time keeping and listening skills.  

We asked Braccan what the best things about the job are, in his opinion. He told us that being paid was one of the biggest positives because “money is a motivator”. He continued “Also, the work I’m doing is fun, I’m interested in the job – the money is a really big bonus.” Braccan is fortunate to have been given this opportunity because he gets engineering experience as well as it being a paid experience. Braccan spoke very highly of the Vertex engineering team, he specifically mentioned how welcoming they were from the very start. 

Alan Gardiner, Engineering Account Manager for Vertex gave us some insight on how well  Braccan is doing in his placement with them. “Braccan has been working with the Engineering Team for a 6 week period.  He was a great addition to our team, we thoroughly enjoy having him with us and I believe and hope that he is enjoying the experience. He is punctual, hard-working and willing to be fully involved in any task that the Engineer he works with was undertaking, he follows instruction and is polite and courteous at all times”.

Braccan told us that he regularly meets with the team to review his progress and they allowed him to stay longer than the original two weeks. We were interested to know if Braccan had any advice for other young people in the youth justice system. He said “Get off the roads, take opportunities and get some money in your hand”. We asked him if he’d recommend them to take an opportunity in King’s Cross, like this work experience placement, and he responded “Yeah, this is a big area so there’s loads of opportunities here.” Braccan highlighted that this opportunity has given him money, experience, a routine and made his mum proud. He also mentioned that he is trying to convince his brother to get involved too. 

If you are a young person that is interested in working on the King’s Cross estate, take a look at our current apprenticeship opportunities.