Introducing Rise Up
April 20, 2026Posted by:
There’s a growing gap between how young people are talked about and what they are navigating when it comes to finding a way into work. Some of the conversation feels too comfortable given the reality.
Spend time online and the same themes come up. Questions about attitude, concerns about resilience, suggestions that younger generations are unwilling to “pay their dues”, reducing a complex reality to a question of mindset.
But spend time with the young people Rise Up works with and the picture looks different.
A young person today has come through disrupted education, a shifting labour market, and rising costs, while entry-level roles continue to change. What “starting out” looks like now is harder to see and harder to navigate than it has been for previous generations.
It isn’t surprising that many feel uncertain about what comes next, or how to get there.
In the UK today, over 900,000 young people are not in education, employment or training. This is a mainstream workforce issue, alongside growing pressure on employers who need people, potential and new thinking to keep their organisations moving.
This comes down to access, stability, skills, and whether the starting line is even visible from where they are.
This is the space Rise Up was created to work in.
Founded by Talent UK, PeoplePlus’ sister organisation in the swipejobs group, Rise Up brings together commercial experience and social understanding. Its trustees include leaders who work with the realities of the jobs market every day and understand both the pressures on employers and the challenges young people face in getting started.
Rise Up works directly with young people from an early stage, sticking with them, including those who have never had a job before. The focus is practical and consistent.
The work centres on building confidence, understanding what work requires, and helping young people take meaningful steps forward. That includes honest conversations about expectations, alongside the skills and behaviours that help people stay in work and progress once they get there.
The wider conversation about young people and work is easy to have from a distance.
Without understanding, it can create more space between expectation and reality.
- What happens when a young person who might once have found a pathway to grow into now struggles to see where they fit?
- Where does support come from in that moment, as they work out what they can offer, and whether there is a place for them?
This is where Rise Up’s work becomes real. Relationships are built that give someone a reason to keep going when early attempts don’t land.
At the same time, employers are dealing with their own pressures. Roles need to be filled. Technology is changing what entry-level work looks like. In some sectors, the gap between what is needed and what is available is becoming harder to bridge.
There is a growing recognition that no single organisation can address this on its own.
Employers can adapt how they recruit and create opportunities, but they cannot replicate the time and trust built through community-based support. Charities and local organisations help people prepare for work, but without clear pathways into employment, that progress can stall.
Rise Up connects these two realities in a way that is practical and grounded.
For employers, this means working with young people who are being supported to understand what’s expected in a role, building the confidence and behaviours that make a difference once they’re in post.
For young people, it means something more immediate. A sense that effort leads somewhere. A better understanding of what work involves, and a realistic way of stepping into it.
Without that connection, the pattern continues. Employers search for people they struggle to reach. Young people try to move forward without a clear way in. Systems sit alongside each other, but not together.
That doesn’t need to be the outcome.
Rise Up is already showing what can happen when those connections are made with intent and consistency. The relationships are there. The understanding is there. The focus is on making work possible in ways that hold up over time.
For employers, this means recognising that supporting the next generation is not something to approach alone.
It means working with organisations already building those connections, in the places where young people are working out what comes next.
That is the focus of Rise Up - working with each young person and each employer to make those connections hold.
That is what Rise Up offers.
To find out more about working with Rise Up, contact us at [email protected]
To read more more about the relationship between PeoplePlus and Rise Up, check out PeoplePlus Head of Wellbeing, Marina Cadman's latest article on the PeoplePlus News channel on LinkedIn
April 20, 2026Posted by:
