My name is Dina Douglas, and I'm a Law and Psychology student at Oxford Brookes. I recently received a social entrepreneur award from Oxford Brookes Social Enterprise Award for this very same idea that I'm about to make a reality.

According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, the UK is reported to have over 1 million young people who are unemployed and are not in education nor in training and this increases annually with graduates.

But this is about to change, the gap is now closing and you can be a part of that change!

My Project

I'm creating a powerful youth recruitment site that utilises the power of social media. A site that is digitally advanced, and would allow jobseekers to visually demonstrate their skill set. Something that, quite surprisingly, doesn't exist yet. It uses all the tools young people already love to use. Think Facebook merged with LinkedIn-style interactive membership website and more, thereby taking social media to another level. 

My passion for tackling youth unemployment stems from being a former youth worker, as well as a student union rep, who faced the same issues. I got tired of hearing the negative views expressed about young people and I wanted to do something to change this. And I haven't been sitting still!  In order to prepare myself for this venture, I have undertaken training in recruitment, workshops on setting up a social enterprise, and training in web design and online marketing. My diverse employment background and experience working with young people, as well as my passion and vision for this project lead me to believe in its endless possibilities!

Check out some mock ups of the site below;

Home page  

Candidate’s profile

Employers/Company Page

This website, with FREE access to ALL, will offer members the ability to personalize their profile page for future employers to view. It offers young job seekers the ability to upload a short introductory video to introduce themselves to employers which sells their strengths and communication skills. Other features include instant messages, email messages, chat rooms, forums on job hunting, online portfolio with videos of skillset and many more.

The Million Dollar Question

The reason I am asking for donations is to keep this site free to young job seekers and thus attract as many people as possible to use it. In order to do this, I need to raise over £2000 to cover phase 3 of the project so that it is ready to be piloted in Oxford in September before it is rolled out to the whole of the UK.  I would be extremely grateful for any donation, no matter what amount. I do have various rewards which I can offer you if you choose to donate a certain amount, which are listed at the side.

Money Isn't Everything

I am aware that not everyone will be able to offer financial help, but there are other exciting ways you could help out:

1. Spread the word and help young people to start thinking about the different ways they could creatively showcase their skills or hidden talent. This can be through word of mouth, sharing the campaign on Facebook, following our Twitter page and retweeting this campaign details
2. Are you an employer or company who could offer help, employment opportunities are some form of collaboration?  Get in touch!
3. Could you help with the design, programming or debugging of the site?
4. Are you involved in online marketing, or do you know of any who would like to get involved?
5. It would be great if you could forward this info to anyone you believe should be aware of this, either future job seekers or employers that should sign up to this venture
6. Volunteer to help promote or assist at job fairs, schools or fresher’s events etc
7. Providing useful content for the website such as tips or advice for young job seekers. Bottom line: if you available to volunteer I can find something for you!

Final Remarks

If you have any further questions regarding the development of the site or collaborations email me at info@recruityoung.com . For regular updates, you can like our Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/RecruitYoungBusinessAgency or follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RecruitYoung or you can check out the site at www.recruityoung.com  to sign up and join our online community.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you will consider funding or getting involved with this project. Come and join me to be a part of something that is bigger than you and I!