Youth Pre-Employment Skills Training Program

Build job-ready soft skills by mentoring seniors in tech over 10 structured sessions

A senior man in a red shirt and a young man named Dylan in a black shirt are sitting at a table in a community space. The senior is holding up a smartphone displaying a photo while smiling, highlighting their interaction during a tech mentoring session, as part of a pre-employment Program. This helps the youngster develop skills for employment.

Program Structure

Our 10-session program combines hands-on community service with structured skills training. Young participants mentor seniors in technology and build the essential workplace skills employers value most.

What happens in the program:

Participants attend weekly 2-hour sessions where they provide one-on-one tech help to seniors at shopping centres, libraries, or community venues. Our program helps seniors learn to use smartphones, video calls, and apps, which allowing young people to naturally develop communication, patience, problem-solving, and customer service skills in a real-world setting.

Alongside mentoring sessions, participants receive:

Access to a Google Career Certificates scholarship, after their 10th session, allowing them to do learn IT Support or Project Management and other in demand skills.
Communication, teamwork, and workplace professionalism training
High-performing participants can advance to Lead Youngster roles
CV building, interview preparation (including a mock interview at week 5), and job search guidance
Individual skill progression tracking.
Participants receive payment starting after their 5th session and mock interview

The program culminates in a graduation where participants receive completion certificates and their individual skill progress reports.

How it works

Step 1: Your organisation refers participants aged 16-24 to the program.

Step 2: Youngsters meet their dedicated Program Manager over video call. Participants join weekly 2-hour sessions at a local shopping centre, library, or community venue.

Step 3: Regular session attendance begins. Young people mentor seniors in technology because it develops essential workplace skills like warm communication, personal presentation, customer service, and other job critical soft skills.

Step 4: Mid-program check-in at week 5 includes a mock interview and progress review to ensure participants are on track.

Step 5: Participants complete the 10-session program, receive their completion certificate, Google Career Certificate Scholarship and graduate with job-ready skills and real work experience.

Step 6: Your organisation receives detailed progress, attendance and participant outcome reports.

An older woman and a young man Participate in an employment skills program. They are engaged in a conversation at a table, focusing intently on each other while discussing technology. The Youngster is learning job critical soft skills like communication and problem solving, as part of our pre employment program for youth.

“I’ve felt more confident in my individual skills when it comes to being employed. I had not had experience with having a job beforehand, and Youngster gave me the first step into being employed.”

— Dan, Youngster.co Program Graduate

A senior lady holding her phone and a Youngster with a brown jumper on.

As seen on ABC

Our Youngsters were featured in the ABC program “You’re never too old to become a tech whizz!”.

Bar chart comparing confidence levels in various skills before and after participating in the Youngster.co program, showing significant improvement in areas such as customer service, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. These are Important skills Youngsters learn as part of our employment program.

Proven Impact and Results

The Youngster.co program delivers measurable improvements in the employment skills that matter most. Our outcomes study of 57 Youngster.co participants shows dramatic confidence gains across all measured key workplace competencies.

Read the Report

A Testimonial from Ariz

Hear from Ariz about his experience in the Youngster.co program:

Watch the Video

Employment Skills Growth

Young people in our program reported significant improvements across all essential workplace skills:

88% very/completely confident in providing good customer service (up from 40%)
89% confident listening to understand others’ problems (up from 60%)
82% confident working as a team (up from 56%)
81% confident presenting professionally (up from 47%)
81% confident solving problems (up from 53%)
68% confident in getting and keeping a job (up from 37%)

Real Employment Outcomes:

70% of participants said the program helped them secure employment elsewhere.
21% had already secured jobs using their Youngster.co experience
Many participants reported using Youngster.co on their CV as a key factor in landing interviews and job offers.

Proven Impact

What Participants say about our Program

Read the Report

“It helped a lot adding the Youngster.co in my CV. I got a job just by telling the employer about this job in youngster.co”

“Recently I put Youngster.co on my resume and I believe it has helped secure a job interview with Telstra”

“I included youngster on my CV and is one of the main reasons I got my job at the gym“

What the program includes

Ten structured sessions combining hands-on mentoring, skills training, and career preparation.

10x On-the-job Tech Mentoring Sessions

Weekly 2-hour sessions where participants help seniors with smartphones, tablets, video calls, and apps, developing job-critical soft skills like communication, problem solving, and building confidence in the Youngsters.

Paid Work Experience

Participants earn payment for their work starting after the 5th session. This builds responsibility, punctuality, and real workplace habits. It also, importantly, fosters self belief and an employment mindset in the youngster.

Completion Certificate

Graduates receive official completion certificates recognising their achievements, perfect for resumes and job applications.

Google Scholarship

Youngsters who complete their 10th session are given a scholarship to undertake a Google Career Certificate in IT Support, Project Management, UX design or other in-demand digital skills. Over 70% of Google certificate graduates report a new job, raise, or promotion within six months.

Leadership Pathways

High-performing participants can advance to Lead Youngster positions, gaining supervisory experience and additional income.

Ongoing References & Support

Program managers and fellow youngsters provide employment references and validity to their work experience.

Professional Skills Training

Structured training in workplace essentials: communication, teamwork, problem-solving, time management, and presenting yourself professionally.

Mock Interview & CV Support

Mid-program mock interview at week 5, plus CV building guidance and access to mentorship to prepare participants for real employment opportunities.

Get Started. Partner with us.

Partner with Youngster.co to give your participants structured pre-employment training that delivers measurable outcomes. We handle everything from onboarding to progress reporting, so you can focus on supporting your young people into sustainable employment.

Partner With Us

About us

We are a certified social enterprise

Hey there! We’re a bunch of passionate individuals working hard to bring tech-savvy youngsters and experienced older people together. We create a space where generations learn from each other, while also providing jobs and important life skills for young people.