The Brokerage The Overlooked Advantage - Flipbook - Page 7
What do young people with experience of
disadvantage bring to the workplace?
The employment penalty of growing up in disadvantage is well-established. Fewer than half
(46%) of Black and Asian young people were in work pre-pandemic, compared with around two
thirds (68%) of white young people, with the gap widening over the course of 2020-21.[7] Over a
quarter (26%) of young people who received free school meals are NEET (not in education,
employment or training), compared to 13% of their better-off peers.[8]
In search of the causes and potential solutions or this employment gap, researchers have
primarily focused on the negative impacts of disadvantage, including, for example, lower chances
of participation in education and levels of educational attainment, which are both linked to
employment outcomes. However, this approach has meant that any strengths and positive
consequences for young people facing and tackling adversity remain underexplored.[9]
Strengths rooted in the experience of disadvantage
To identify the strengths gained from the experience of disadvantage, we interviewed The
Brokerage Alumni, as well as employers of The Brokerage Candidates, asking them to describe
moments when young people were particularly good at tackling a task or solving a work problem
because they were from a different background. Five themes emerged from those accounts (see
Figure 1).
Figure 1: Strengths that disadvantaged young people bring to the workplace
Readiness to
learn
Creativity
Desire for
excellence
Emotional and
cultural
intelligence
Resilience
[7] Wilson, T., & Papoutsaki, D. (2021). An Unequal Crisis: The impact of the pandemic on the youth labour market.
London: Youth Futures Foundation.
[8] Gadsby, B. (2019). Establishing the Employment Gap. Impetus.
[9] Ellis, B. J., Abrams, L. S., Masten, A. S., Sternberg, R. J., Tottenham, N., & Frankenhuis, W. E. (2020). Hidden talents
in harsh environments. Development and psychopathology, 1-19.
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