Powerful partnerships supporting IAF services

Every success story starts somewhere small. A young person attending their first mentoring session after months out of work. Someone building the confidence to speak in a group again. Another completing a qualification they once thought was out of reach.

At IAF, these courageous moments are some of the most important in a young person's journey; underpinning every step young people take in transitioning to education, employment, and improved wellbeing. These outcomes do not happen in isolation though and they are the result of coordinated support structures and trusted relationships that work together effectively. As NEET figures continue to rise across the UK, the need for this kind of joined-up and responsive approach has never been clearer.

Barriers to engagement are often interconnected and can include mental health needs, housing instability, money worries, low confidence, or negative prior experiences of education or employment. This is why partnership working is so important to us and why we work with so many local authorities, businesses and education providers to secure the best outcomes for our service users. One such partnership with Ashfield-based ROMO Fabrics offers a fantastic example of how collective approaches can open doors for young people:

After securing funding through their Nottinghamshire's Community Foundation grants scheme, we've had the pleasure of working ROMO since 2023. During this time, ROMO have welcomed young people from our King's Trust programmes to their head office as part of site tours, mock interviews, work experience placements and graduations. Now ROMO are taking their support to a new level, sponsoring our Mansfield Team programme this May and bringing their employer insights to all of our service users in our upcoming Employer showcase event. This showcase on the 3rd June will see team members from a whole host of ROMO departments, including marketing, warehousing, design and engineering, sharing their routes into industry and challenging young people to think creatively about their career paths through a series of talks and activities.

Rising NEET figures are a clear signal that more needs to be done, but they do not define what is possible. The achievements we see every day at IAF show that with the right support and a community that champions local talent, young people can and do make progress.