JobLab takes the 'Company of the year' award at the Young Enterprise Finals
"The Young Enterprise programme has been an amazing opportunity to learn new skills and gain real-world experience of running a business."
Will Dereham, Chief Technology Officer JobLab
The month of May saw the conclusion of the Young Enterprise Programme, during 2021/22 year 12 students from Guernsey schools take part in Young Enterprise, guided by volunteer business advisers, who give up their own time to help mentor the groups.
Young Enterprise's vision is that every young person is provided with the opportunity to learn the vital skills needed to earn and look after their money, their programmes provide practical ways for young people to get a taste of the world of work and the excitement of running a business.
Through links between schools and industry, its guiding principle is to empower students through ‘learning by doing.’ Running throughout one academic year, up to 8 achievers per company make all the decisions about their enterprise, from deciding on the name and product to creating a business plan, managing the student company finances and selling to the public at trade fairs. All this takes place with the support of a team of volunteer Business Advisers who bring a wealth of business knowledge and expertise. A range of resources are provided to help manage the company. Teams track their progress using self-assessment tools and even compete against other schools in local, regional and national competitions.
"JobLab was a challenging project which has the potential to solve a problem that we all had, and if anyone was thinking of joining the next programme I would absolutely recommend applying, as it is enjoyable and it helps one develop a wide range of new skills."
Oliver Coupe, Designer JobLab
Joblab took the 'Company of the year' award at the Young Enterprise Finals, amongst their competitors Paracord, The Paper People, Scraps and Channel Island Tops who all won awards in various fields.
Created by an innovational group of students during the Young Enterprise Programme, JobLab is a recruitment platform which helps young people find jobs in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, aiming to be the quickest and easiest way for young people to find weekend and holiday work that is relevant to the user's interests, areas of study and previous experience.
School leavers can often struggle to find relevant work when finishing education, and often have to wade through many job postings that are irrelevant and out skilled, or may take part-time work in a field that isn't relevant to their studies that could potentially harm their career path. With JobLab, users can create a custom profile to be visible to potential employers and follow relevant companies to receive the latest news, hiring information, and work experience/internship offers.
JobLab doesn't only offer services to students but is also an affordable and effective way for organisations to advertise vacancies. With accessible subscription fees, companies can easily create and manage job postings with their user-friendly web-based interface. This allows local businesses to reach a targeted demographic of young people, at a lower price than traditional print media. JobLab stands behind the ethos that it will always remain free for students because 'finding a job should be simple and easy for everyone' and offers registered non-profit organisations and charities the opportunity to publish job postings free of charge.
Read the JobLab team's experiences on the Young Enterprise Programme below,
The JobLab team
Rhiannon Mallard
CEO, JobLab"Creating a business, was very stressful but fun and a good learning experience. During the Young Enterprise Programme, our team developed skills such as leadership, communication via online, organisation, financial management, and I personally gained insights on managing a team.
The decision to create JobLab during the Young Enterprise Programme was a choice we made as we had a couple programmers in our team, we are planning to continue the business, and I plan to keep my role and to continue pushing JobLab forwards.
If you are thinking of joining the next Young Enterprise Programme, I say do it! It’s a lot of work but as soon as you get organised and you know what you’re doing it becomes a lot easier to manage."
Will Dereham
Chief Technology Officer, JobLab"It's been an amazing opportunity to learn new skills and gain real-world experience of running a business. Every day has been varied, with each member of the team contributing to all aspects of running the company. The support we received from our business advisor from the Young Enterprise Programme has been invaluable - keeping the momentum high and helping to point out our mistakes.
Joseph Blake
Head of Human Resources, JobLab
Oliver Coupe
Designer, JobLab"My experience with the Young Enterprise programme was enjoyable and exciting in a competitive structure that kept us motivated to make the best company that we could. During the programme, our team gained insights into the business world and gained skills such as the development of inventive communication skills due to our team being split between schools, the ability to work together to meet a deadline and an insight into how a company should be run. Personally, the experience helped me improve my skills in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop as well as the structure of commercial graphic advertising.
JobLab was a challenging project which has the potential to solve a problem that we all had, and if anyone was thinking of joining the next programme I would absolutely recommend applying, as it is enjoyable and it helps one develop a wide range of new skills. In the future, I will continue the design and marketing work for JobLab as well as any other tasks that I may need to complete to keep our business running."
Thomas Dorey
Head of Strategy, JobLab"My experience of the Young Enterprise Programme was generally positive. I developed my communication skills as I had to organise a team of people. I also learnt a lot about managing my expectations as in a lot of cases I was chasing up due work.
