NCS The Challenge
NCS The Challenge
I have worked in the Yorkshire Staffing Team at NCS The Challenge for just over a year. My job role involves guiding candidates through every stage of our customer journey, from attracting candidates through job adverts/events, screening applications, conducting interviews and assessments, and placing candidates into work.
NCS The Challenge is the UK's leading social integration charity, and the primary provider of the National Citizen Service (NCS) Programme across England. The NCS Programme is open to all 15-17 year olds, and is designed to upskill young people and encourage social mixing through a series of projects and residentials, lasting 18 days in total over the Summer holidays. Every year, we employ a large amount of seasonal staff, from all backgrounds, to facilitate these projects and work closely with Young People on the programme.
I recruit for a variety of roles, and employ candidates from a diverse range of backgrounds; however, a large amount of my time is spent liaising with universities and students, as they form a significant proportion of our staff base, especially for our Mentor roles. As a Mentor, staff members work with a team of approximately 12 Young People throughout the programme, facilitating their NCS experience through a series of outdoor activities, workshops and projects that form the NCS curriculum.
The Mentor role is especially attractive to students, given that it only comprises 18 days of work, takes place in the Summer holidays, and is flexible insomuch as that we have a variety of different start dates across the Summer. Additionally, given that we operate in 7 zones across the UK (including London, Manchester & Birmingham), our staff are able to train and assess in whichever zone most convenient for them, before undertaking work in the zone that best suits their location over Summer. Last year, the pay for our Mentor role was £1530 per 18 day placement.
In our Mentors, we look for highly-motivated and enthusiastic self-starters, who are able to motivate others and act as a positive role model for a group of Young People. Experience working with Young People is required for the role, but this can come in any form - from paid classroom experience to informal sports coaching. We provide full training to all successful applicants before undertaking their roles.
Personally, I see the most attractive thing about the Mentor role as the opportunity it presents for staff members to gain work-ready, transferrable skills in a short space of time. Even for those who aren’t sure they want to pursue a career in youth work, the role gives staff members important, quantifiable skills in leadership, team work and workshop facilitation. These skills are important in pretty much any career path. Additionally, our supportive staff structure and company culture ensures that we place huge value in helping your professional development, despite the relatively short length of the programme. With such a short commitment of time, coupled with the opportunity for rapid skills development in a paid environment, the Mentor role on NCS is ideal for students.
All our roles can be viewed in more detail, and applied for on http://ncs.the-challenge.org/jobs/ We invite all successful applicants to assessment - upon passing this assessment, we begin allocating work. All roles are first come, first served - make sure you put your application in ASAP for the best chance in securing your role and dates!
