This week we announced our new peer panel – a cohort of young people who are set to drive Access Generation forward. We asked the peer panel to tell us their top three messages for employers.

Meet 23-year-old Yannis.

Yannis’ messages to employers

If successful at getting to the interview stage, there should be a guarantee of feedback regardless of the outcome.

Feedback is important to us because it enables improvement in areas where we fall short. Providing feedback is also mutually beneficial because that individual will have a more favourable opinion of your organisation, which in turn may affect the perception of other people who are considering applying.

Applications for different areas of the business should be relevant to the skills needed for that role.

The application process for each role should be tailored. For my current graduate role, I submitted a short essay relevant to the industry, conducted three tests (numerical, critical thinking, situational judgement), a telephone interview and assessment day. Throughout the process, it was made clear that everything undertaken was relevant to skills needed to the role and therefore I did not mind the process. This is in contrast to a previous application for a legal internship, where I did an abstract reasoning test consisting of matching shape patterns. While this process was shorter, I was frustrated at the fact that my suitability for the role had absolutely nothing to do with what I was being tested on. It did not feel truly meritocratic.

Make it clear how my career can progress at your company.

Ambitious young people want to know how our career can evolve. We want assurances that if we perform to X standard then we should be promoted to Y role within Z time. Nobody likes feeling stuck in one position, otherwise, we might look elsewhere.

By young people, for young people

Since launching, we have listened to young people and shared valuable insights on their views with businesses.

More recently young people have designed, built and delivered assessments for businesses and contribute to our training events.

Now the peer panel will help us make our future vision a reality which is to have Access Generation run by young people, for young people.

The peer panel members will represent the voice of young people, help us to validate our research findings and run a campaign to promote our new accreditation which will be officially launched later this month.

For businesses

Find out more about the accreditation here.

For young people

If you’re a young person looking for voluntary work then why not become a peer panel member with us? Find out more here.