Young people finding ways to put their skills to use

Ellie Clayton writes about making work of idle hands: Young people are finding alternative ways of putting their skills to use.

Faced with a hugely competitive job market an increasing number of enterprising young people are turning to charitable and community projects as an alternative way of applying and developing their skills and abilities. I spoke to Lani Shamash, a recent postgraduate and former student of Acland Burghley School in Camden, about her work with The Peoples Power, a family run Community Interest Company that hopes to harness the collective power of subscribers to force cheaper deals on energy bills.

Its long-term aims include providing a viable solution to the growing problem of fuel poverty and promoting renewable energy sources to the mass market. They have already approached a number of London boroughs and housing associations to discuss the possibility of signing up entire council estates and areas of sheltered housing to the scheme, ensuring that those who are most vulnerable and often outside of the reach of its enthusiastic social media marketing campaigns can also become involved in the savings The People’s Power hope to make.

With all profits to be reinvested in community and renewable energy schemes this project shows how with a little ingenuity, the internet can go some way to compensate for the loss of traditional ‘community values’ in high population areas like London. The work done by Lani and her family offers a network of support for the most vulnerable, and puts power back into the hands of the people.

Lani balances her role with a full-time temping job, dedicating lunchtimes, evenings and weekends to the success of the project. Her involvement is driven primarily by her passion for the project. As she says, “I don’t think I’d be able to work this hard and put this much time in for the sake of fluffing up my CV a bit.” However, the personal benefits are clear, her role has seen her undertaking such wide-ranging responsibilities as helping with logo and poster design, to drafting press releases and making an appearance on BBC Radio. She describes an improved confidence and faith in her own employability, qualities that for many are irreconcilably damaged by stretches of unemployment, low-level jobs and continued rejection.

For thousands of young people it is becoming increasingly evident that opportunities to contribute to a worthy cause, develop their experience and get the level of ‘job-satisfaction’ expected of high achievers are infrequent. Is the “only way” now, as Lani says, to turn to donating time voluntarily in the hope that one day, the investment will pay out for themselves and for their communities?