A DRIVE is being launched to get young carers into the workforce.

A host of businesses are backing the Dorset-based MYTime Young Carers’ Charity, which has won £13,500 of grant funding to launch its Young Carers Employability Programme.

The programme aims to support carers aged 18-25 who are not working or in education.

MYTime executive director Krista Cartlidge said: “For a young carer, making the transition from childhood into adulthood can be complex and challenging as a result of their significant caring responsibilities.

“This can have a substantial effect on their engagement with education and employment. Young carers miss on average 48 school days per year, accounting for them missing almost 25 per cent of their education and as a consequence young carers can achieve lower grades at GCSE than their peers.

“Their caring responsibilities also mean that they struggle to find employers who are able to offer them the necessary flexibility that they require to allow them to work.”

Young people on the employability programme will attend six face-to-face sessions, each lasting two hours, over a six-week period.

The sessions will cover:

n Exploring potential career paths, with support and guidance to identify and access a job or course that interests the carer but fits in with their responsibilities at home.

n A CV writing workshop, with young people encouraged to consider how the skills they have developed as carers could be useful in the workplace.

n Interview skills training.

n Mock interviews with local business leaders from the charity’s project partners.

n Support in applying for work experience with a project partner.

There will also be an awards evening celebrating the participants’ achievements.

Krista Cartlidge added: “We are very fortunate to count some outstanding Dorset based businesses as our partners for this project. Businesses involved include Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, Greendale Construction Limited, Barker Group, Inspire Accountancy, Intergage Digital Marketing Agency, KTPR and Camden Bar and Kitchen.

“We are also looking for other businesses to come on board and be a part of this journey that these young people will be on. It’s an opportunity for a business to make a massive difference to the life of a young carer and potentially change their direction in life.”

Businesses interested in becoming project partners should email krista@mytimecharity.co.uk

Anyone who knows a young carer who would be eligible to take part can email programme manager Emma Fry at emma@mytimecharity.co.uk or call 01202 710701.