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KFC opens youth club to help young people find job opportunities
The aim of the programme is to help young people a fair shot at a first job.
KFC recently launched its inclusive members club, The Kentucky Club, that will offer networking and job opportunities as well as learning opportunities from a mix of inspirational talks and skills development.
Opening at The Compound in Birmingham on 27 October, The Kentucky Club will talk from some famous faces and popular YouTubers Nella Rose and Luke Vernon, alongside networking and job opportunities, and practical skills development from partners including UK Youth, Apprentice Nation, 4Skills and LadBible.
But unlike traditional members clubs, The Kentucky Club will be free and open to 16–24-year-olds, whatever their background or walk of life, with tickets available for the one-day event through Eventbrite.
The launch of the Kentucky Club is the latest move from KFC to open more doors for young people into the world of work, building on the roll-out of ‘Hatch’, a national youth employability programme designed and delivered with UK Youth, launched last year. ‘Hatch’ will help some 6,000 young people across the UK who have faced barriers to employment land their first job. Young people graduating from the Hatch programme will be automatically enrolled into the Kentucky Club, giving them continued access to learning and job opportunities.
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As the youngest city in Europe, with under 25s accounting for nearly 40% of the city’s population, and with the number of young people out of work substantially greater than the national average, Birmingham was seen as the ideal location to host the first Kentucky Club pop-up.
It comes as new research from KFC and UK Youth finds growing economic uncertainty and unequal access to opportunities is holding many young people back from landing their first job. The study of over 4,000 16–25-year-olds found that 65% of young people believe there is not enough support available to help them get into work, with a further 61% saying it is hard to land a job without a connection or a ‘way in’.
