The DHL UK Foundation: helping young people to find a future in the workplace

The rate of long-term youth unemployment is cause for alarm in the UK. But the partnership between DHL, the world’s largest contract logistics provider, and the DHL UK Foundation aims to tackle it through a hands-on approach to skills development.

After nearly two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the devastating effects that it has had for many businesses, the news appears on the face of it to be more promising for jobseekers in the UK. The number of workers on UK company payrolls has risen after the end of the Government’s furlough scheme and there are now a record 1.2 million job vacancies.

However, the story for young people is very different.

In fact, for them, the pandemic has led to a huge rise in UK youth unemployment with 70% of job losses among the under-25s.

Calling for urgent action, the House of Lords Unemployment Committee has recently published a report – Skills for every young person – which explores the crisis and says: “At 11.7%, the UK’s youth unemployment rate continues to be worse than many other countries, and today more than one in eight of our under 25s are neither working nor in full-time study.”

Perhaps most concerning is that 42% of unemployed young people in the UK have been jobless for six months or more.

For the future workforce that’s a disturbing statistic but one that DHL, through its partnership with the DHL UK Foundation, is determined to address.

Connecting people, improving lives
The DHL UK Foundation is a registered charity whose vision is to end youth unemployment. It works with DHL colleagues across the UK on its mission to help charities and school partners ensure that disadvantaged young people have access to the best possible education, develop essential life skills and have the opportunity to secure meaningful and sustainable employment.

Sonia Chhatwal, the Foundation’s Director, says: “Young people who have been unemployed for quite some time are the hardest to reach, and often don’t have the confidence to start looking for roles. In many cases they don’t even know where to start. That might be because they live in an area of very significant deprivation or live in a home environment where they have no role model that they see on a regular basis who has a career, or even regular employment. It’s about teaching them things that we take for granted like knowing where to look for jobs, how to complete a CV or job application, or how to conduct themselves in an interview.”

For DHL, its support for the Foundation aligns perfectly with the purpose that guides it efforts – “Connecting people, improving lives” – and the social focus of its ESG agenda, which is to be a great company to work for all. Part of being a great company is being able to support your people in doing great things.

Lindsay Bridges, a Foundation Trustee and SVP HR at DHL Supply Chain UKI, says: “We are very focused on ending youth unemployment, and helping disadvantaged young people. But another important part of the Foundation’s work is to enable our colleagues to give their time in volunteering activities.

Insight on the world of work
That colleague engagement is well demonstrated by the Foundation’s work with the Teach First charity, which tackles educational inequality in the UK by placing newly qualified teachers in schools in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the UK. Its work aligns with the DHL GoTeach programme which sees DHL colleagues going into those schools to deliver mentoring, career talks, CV and interview workshops, as well as arranging site visits.

Lindsay says: “These visits are fairly informal and involve colleagues simply chatting about the job that they’re doing and helping young people to realize more about the range of careers that could be open to them. That’s not necessarily the logistics industry – it’s about stimulating an interest in the world of work and helping them develop the skills that could be transferable to any kind of organization.”

The volunteering goes right to the top, as DHL Supply Chain board members also work with head teachers to mentor them on leadership and business issues – strategic planning, business management, HR, procurement and so on – that are now necessary in modern educational establishments. In return, they receive some valuable insight into the complexities of running a school.

Another of the Foundation’s partners is the Street League charity which helps unemployed 16-24 year olds to find sustained employment, using the lever of physical activities such as sport and dance.

Sonia says that typically, colleagues from a local DHL site might play a game of football at one of the Street League Academies, in order to break the ice, before going back to talk to the youngsters about their jobs and help them with CV and interview skills. There are also work placements available at the local DHL site to give them a flavour of the workplace, and what it’s like to work as a driver’s mate or in a warehouse environment.

Skills for life
For Lindsay, her involvement with the Foundation comes out of more than simply her professional role, and is exemplified by the presence of another partner, The Outward Bound Trust. “In my early career I worked with young people, taking them away sailing and helping them to build their confidence, assertiveness and ability to work in teams. I’m an absolutely fundamental believer in giving young people opportunities outside their normal school and family routine, and I think they can be much more successful in life with those kinds of skills. The outdoors is a great medium for learning those.”

As an organization that is committed both to delivering sustainable logistics for the future and being a great place to work, DHL is proud to partner with the Foundation in nurturing the skills that will enable young people to find sustainable work. More than that though, it is proud to be able to provide a very practical way of enabling its people to live that special purpose of connecting people and improving lives.

Find out more about the work of the DHL UK Foundation on its website.