Community for First Steps

Community for First Steps

UK work experience, done properly.

Community for First Steps is the UK platform for finding real work experience. Students from Year 10 through to postgraduates, and the local businesses ready to give them a first step, in one safeguarded place.

It is not a jobs board. Every business is checked before it goes live, every placement is safeguarded, and every listing is a real UK workplace you can actually walk into.

Browse placements For businesses
Retail · 1 week

Shop floor experience

Family run garden centre · 1.2 miles away

Apply

Verified by Community
Data and Analytics · 2 weeks

Junior insights placement

Local agency · 3.4 miles away

Apply

The entry level squeeze

The bottom rung of the ladder is being removed.

Entry level jobs are the natural first step into work. Right now there are fewer of them, more people chasing each one, and most of them quietly expect experience you were never given a chance to earn.

0%

fewer entry level openings since 2022

Source: Adzuna job market data

0

applications now compete for every graduate vacancy, a record high

Source: ISE Student Recruitment Survey 2025

~25%

cut in graduate intake at top UK employers over three years, with more cuts expected

Source: High Fliers Research, The Graduate Market in 2026

The cheat code

The trap, and the break.

Watch the same person on two tracks. On the first, effort loops and nothing sticks. On the second, one placement opens the circle, and every step carries forward.

The break

The open path

A placement hands you experience without asking for a job first. The circle opens, and the track starts to climb.

PLACEMENTEVIDENCEAND REFEREESOFFERS

Every step carries forward

50%

of interns convert straight into graduate hires

ISE Student Recruitment Survey 2025

18%

higher pay follows early workplace experience

Education and Employers

Find a placement near you See how it works

Two timelines, one choice

Same student. Same start. One difference.

Follow two versions of the same person from Year 10 to their first job hunt. One never gets a placement. One does. Every claim below has a number behind it, and every number has a source shown alongside it.

Without work experience With work experience
  1. Year 10 and 11
    With

    A first placement and real employer encounters

    A week in a real workplace plus employer visits at school. Subject choices get sharper, applications to college and sixth form carry evidence, and school itself starts to feel relevant.

    Why this matters

    86%

    less likely to become NEET as a young adult after four or more employer encounters at school.Source: Education and Employers

    93%

    of secondary teachers say work experience and employer activities help students do better in exams.Source: Education and Employers, Making the Grade, YouGov survey of 824 teachers

  2. Sixth form and college
    With

    Evidence that anchors every application

    A placement gives the UCAS statement a real story, interview answers with substance, and for some students a direct route into an apprenticeship or a first paid role.

    Why this matters

    97%

    of 13 to 17 year olds say direct work experience is essential for winning a university place, an apprenticeship or a job. With a placement done, you hold what nearly everyone agrees matters.Source: UCAS, Project Next Generation

    Essential

    for vocational degrees, and an explicit strengthener for every other UCAS application, in the words of the admissions service itself.Source: UCAS adviser guidance

  3. University
    With

    Internships and placements alongside the degree

    Summers and sandwich years spent inside real teams. By final year there is a track record, referees who have seen the work, and often an offer already on the table.

    Why this matters

    50%

    of former interns convert directly into graduate hires, skipping the open application scramble entirely.Source: ISE Student Recruitment Survey 2025

    40 to 50%

    of student employers recruit former interns and placement students into their graduate jobs year after year.Source: ISE Student Recruitment Survey 2023

  4. After graduation
    With

    Walking in already known

    A CV full of evidence, referees who vouch from experience, and access to the large share of roles that go to people the employer has already worked with. Plus a pay premium that compounds for years.

    Why this matters

    37%

    of jobs at top companies were expected to go to graduates who had already worked for the employer through internships or work experience.Source: High Fliers Research, The Graduate Market

    Up to 18%

    higher earnings in full time work for young adults who had strong employer contact at school, compared with peers who had none.Source: Education and Employers

Where the first path tends to lead

Higher risk of becoming a statistic

Over one million 16 to 24 year olds are NEET right now, and six in ten of them have never had a paid job. Nobody chooses this path. It happens one missed first step at a time.

Sources: ONS, January to March 2026. TUC analysis.

Where the second path tends to lead

Working, earning more, moving with direction

Lower NEET risk at every stage, stronger applications at every gate, and a measurable pay premium once in work. The odds moved at every single step, and each step was small.

Sources: Education and Employers. ISE. High Fliers Research.

The word behind the numbers

What NEET actually means

You will see this word across our site and across the news. It deserves a proper explanation, because it describes real people, not a label.

Not in Education, Employment or Training. A NEET is a young person aged 16 to 24 who is not studying, not working and not in any training programme. Some are actively looking for work and cannot find it. A growing majority are economically inactive, meaning they have stopped looking altogether, often because of long term health issues or lost confidence.

1,012,000

young people were NEET in early 2026, above one million for the first time since 2013

13.5%

of all 16 to 24 year olds, and still rising year on year

613,000

are economically inactive, not even looking any more

6 in 10

have never had a paid job of any kind

Sources: ONS, young people not in education, employment or training, January to March 2026. TUC analysis.

The forces behind the number

Why does it happen?

Four forces show up again and again in the research. Use the switches below to move between them.

Fewer first rungs on the ladder

The jobs young people traditionally started in are disappearing. Entry level openings have fallen by roughly a third since 2022, and top employers have cut graduate intake by around a quarter in three years. Fewer doors means more people locked outside them.

Source: Adzuna job market data. High Fliers Research, The Graduate Market in 2026.

Health, confidence and withdrawal

The fastest growing group of NEETs is not the unemployed but the economically inactive: 613,000 young people who have stopped looking altogether, a rise driven partly by long term illness and mental health, especially among young men. Every rejection without feedback pushes more people into this group.

Source: ONS, January to March 2026. House of Commons Library.

  • Fewer first rungs on the ladder

    The jobs young people traditionally started in are disappearing. Entry level openings have fallen by roughly a third since 2022, and top employers have cut graduate intake by around a quarter in three years. Fewer doors means more people locked outside them.

    Source: Adzuna job market data. High Fliers Research, The Graduate Market in 2026.

  • The experience wall

    Most remaining entry roles quietly expect experience. Recruiters at leading employers openly warn that applicants with none have little or no chance. So the people who most need a first job are the least able to win one, purely because nobody gave them a start.

    Source: High Fliers Research, The Graduate Market.

  • Health, confidence and withdrawal

    The fastest growing group of NEETs is not the unemployed but the economically inactive: 613,000 young people who have stopped looking altogether, a rise driven partly by long term illness and mental health, especially among young men. Every rejection without feedback pushes more people into this group.

    Source: ONS, January to March 2026. House of Commons Library.

  • Lost momentum compounds

    The longer a young person spends outside work and education, the harder the return becomes. Skills fade, confidence drains, and gaps grow on the CV. Six in ten NEET young people have never had a paid job at all, which means the cycle often starts before working life ever does.

    Source: TUC analysis. ONS.

Where Community comes in

We exist to hand you that first step.

Community for First Steps is a free UK platform. Local businesses post real placements, a human verifies every one of them, and you apply in a click. No fees for you, no fees for them, safeguarding throughout.

STEP 1

Discover

Search verified placements near you by location, industry and stage, from Year 10 to postgrad.

STEP 2

Apply safely

Applications run through the platform with verification, safeguarding and clear expectations on both sides.

STEP 3

Take your first step

Finish with real experience, a referee who has seen you work, and evidence for every application after.

Browse placements For businesses