With unemployment among Bristol youth surpassing the national average, Babbasa’s Youth Ambassadors take their City of Change programme online in an effort to make the event more accessible during the pandemic.
Our Bristol, Our World Youth Conference 2019, Babbasa, Bristol City Hall
Babbasa’s latest Challenge Programme project, ‘City of Change: Connections’, will run online from Wednesday, 17th March 2021 to Wednesday, 7th April 2021. “The event is important as it gives young people, who are the future, the opportunity and connections for them to be in the career and workplace they want,” stated Youth Ambassador, Hanad Mohamed. “It matters as companies can get a head start on their future with these young people.”
This year’s event will be held online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an increase in unemployment across Bristol and the UK as a whole. Zoë Lynes, Babbasa’s Challenge Programme’s Lead, stresses the importance of the ‘City of Change: Connections’ event, now more than ever. “Young people have had a pretty rough year, and I know there is a wide feeling of stagnation and frustration amongst our youth,” she explained. “These events are fulfilling a pretty vital role of bringing some hope, inspiration, and practical advice in what a very difficult time has been. It will be the first time that I, or anyone at Babbasa, have done events in this way and I think it will open up new conversations about how we can make events accessible and meaningful, and what it means for us as a traditionally very Bristol-based organisation to hold events that could be accessible to a much wider audience geographically.”
This event will be hosted by Babbasa’s Spring 2021 Youth Ambassadors, who have been working tirelessly to facilitate and promote the event. Each event will have experts and mentors across Engineering & Technology, Creative & Media, Business & Finance, and Social Action & Health industries offering their guidance on how to break into these industries. These speakers come with years of experience behind them, some working for huge titans in their fields, such as the BBC. Phil Hodgson, one of the panellists for the Tech and Engineering event, spoke candily about the importance of creating these spaces in spite of the ongoing pandemic. “There is a skills shortage across the industry, with many competing sectors attracting high calibre young people into them. I hope this event will attract some of those people to choose a career working in the built environment, addressing some of the world’s most significant changes such as climate change, carbon reduction and social equality.”
Hosted by the organisation’s Youth Ambassadors, Babbasa will challenge professionals in each field to create job and networking opportunities for young people from low-income backgrounds to achieve their career ambitions. This will also allow participants access to Babbasa’s Placement Programme, offering them mentoring, CV support and access to a range of work experience opportunities exclusive to Babbasa.
Events run from 5:30pm to 7:30pm every Wednesday from the 17th March to 7th April. If you are a young person from an ethnic minority background or low income household looking to break into one of the industries mentioned, head to our Eventbrite page to pick up your free ticket!