Headline figures from young people Covid-19 survey

Young people on GMs Hidden Talent have been completing a survey designed by our Youth Panel. Where completing the survey has not been possible, Talent Coaches are asking young people the questions.

The results tell us how the lockdown has affected young people's progress towards their work, education, and personal goals. The Youth Panel carried out the initial analysis.  These results, along with information we have from Talent Coaches will form the basis of an upcoming report and will help us to shape GM's Hidden Talent for the remaining nine months of the programme. 

77% of respondents were not working at the start of the lockdown

Contact with Talent Coaches

• 18/19 respondents (95%) said they missed seeing their Talent Coach face-to-face. 

• 14/20 respondents (70%) had been speaking to their Talent Coach either once a week or ‘every couple of days.’

• 16/20 (80%) said they’d had phone calls with their Talent Coach. 

Have young people found Talent Coaches support useful?

• We asked young people how helpful speaking to their Talent Coaches had been since the lockdown began. On a rating scale of 0 – 100, with ‘0’ being ‘No help at all’ and ‘100’ being ‘incredibly helpful, the average from all 19 respondents was 82. Eight young people gave a score of 100. 

• The top three things that Talent Coaches had been able to help with were:

1.    Just being somebody to talk to (84% - 16/19)
2.    Able to share my concerns with them (79% - 15/19)
3.    Helping with my mental wellbeing (58% 11/19)

• When asked what Talent Coaches were NOT able to support with as much under lockdown, these were the top three types of support mentioned:

1. They were helping me with confidence building but we can't do as much of that now (42% - 8/19)

2. They can't help me find a job because the jobs I am interested in are not taking people on right now (37% - 7/19)

3. I feel I can't share some things without meeting them face-to-face (26% - 5/19)

Goals, interruption to goals and challenges

• We asked young people to rate how much the lockdown was affecting their progress. This was the average score:

We asked what goals young people were working towards pre-lockdown and which they were still able to work on under lockdown:

Goal	Working towards pre-lockdown	Not able to work towards during lockdown
Doing things to build my confidence	15 young people	8 young people
Socialising	11 young people	13 young people
Getting out of the house more	13 young people	12 young people
Creating routines	10 young people	10 young people

 

• The top three challenges for young people during COVID-19 lockdown (they were asked to rank these) were​:

1. Not having anything to look forward to (ranked in top 3 for 12 young people)

2. Not being able to work towards something (in top 3 for 11 young people)

3. Worrying about the health of family members (in top 3 for 10 young people) 

Only four young people put concerns about their own health in their top three challenges of lockdown.

• 5/18 respondents (28%) agreed that the coronavirus lockdown has not really changed what they do on a daily basis. This tallies with the number of young people whose pre-COVID goals were getting out of the house and socialising more.

• 10/18 respondents (56%) agreed that the lockdown had led to some positives in their lives. Examples include meeting a girlfriend online, spending time with family and the online courses with Reform Radio.

• 10/18 respondents (56%) think that the virus will make it harder to find the job they want in the future (reasons given: more people looking for jobs, UK economy will struggle).

•  17/18 respondents (94%) think that because of the virus, more young people will need help finding a job in the future