Over 300 global employees from Talent and Talent RISE will be volunteering their time this September for the Talent RISE global ‘Step Up Challenge’ initiative. The initiative aimed at helping young people with challenges to finding employment enters its second year running.

The Talent RISE ‘Step Up Challenge’ will involve Talent and Talent RISE employees walking 20kms on September 8th to raise valuable funds for Talent RISE. In its inaugural year in 2022, Talent RISE raised over AU$100,000 which helped over 1,000 young people with coaching, mentoring, training and secured meaningful employment for 75 young people. In 2023, all funds raised will go towards three life-changing initiatives for young people. These are:

• Tech Academy: The Tech Academy will fund a group of young people through work placements and training to acquire invaluable skills and experience, providing them with a clear pathway into tech roles – a pathway they never thought possible.
• Paid Internship Scheme: Paid internships can be life-changing but are often impossible to secure for the young people we work with. This scheme will fund internships which provide critical experience to help young people gain confidence and secure employment.
• Equal Access Program: This program will support young people from refugee, asylum seeker, or Indigenous backgrounds by covering the cost of training (alongside RISE work readiness support) to provide a platform for future security.

Karen Graham, Talent RISE CEO ANZ said she is committed to helping young people find meaningful work. “We all have a part to play with helping our young people find meaningful careers. In 2022, we were thrilled to have raised over AU$100,000 and this year we hope to go above that. We are humbled to be able to launch three life-changing initiatives this year. Talent RISE’s overhead costs are covered which means every cent we raise for the 2023 Step Up Challenge goes directly into these three brand-new initiatives to help young people facing barriers to employment.”

Launched in 2014, Talent RISE is the charitable foundation of Talent – a leading global technology and digital recruitment specialist. To date, Talent RISE has engaged more than 3,000 young people through workshops and mentoring and has successfully placed over 400 into meaningful employment.

According to Stats NZ, in the March 2023 quarter, the seasonally adjusted proportion of people aged 15-24 years who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) was 10.3% down from 11.1% last quarter.

According to the ABS, the youth unemployment rate in Australia decreased to 7.7% in June 2023. This figure however remains too high and is more than double that of the general population of 3.5%.

Over the years, the Talent and Talent RISE global team has volunteered over 50,000 hours to giving back to charities and community projects and are proud to add the ‘Step Up Challenge’ to the list.

About Talent RISE

Talent RISE is a charity committed to changing the lives of young people who have experienced barriers to employment by providing education, training, life skills and opportunities to help them gain independence and purpose through meaningful work. Talent RISE is the charity arm of Talent, the largest independently owned and operated digital recruitment specialist in Australia and New Zealand. Talent operates across 12 locations around the world with over 300 employees.

Established in 2014, Talent RISE was created to address the high level of youth unemployment and is dedicated to upskilling and empowering young people to commence and build thriving, sustainable careers, whilst assisting employers to build inclusive working environments and bring young people into their organisations. Currently operating in four of the Talent locations across Australia and New Zealand, Talent is committed to extending RISE into all its 12 locations around the world. To learn more about Talent RISE visit www.talentrise.org

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