FLIP: The talent finder
What’s your idea?
Flip: talent finder for alternative employment. Flip is an interactive web application that helps young people identify and communicate their talents and skills, creating an online profile that enables them to access a pool of job opportunities alternative to current limited choice.
It functions as a web application allowing young people to have access and use in an interactive and engaging way. The interface is designed using familiar social network language such as “create a profile”, “applications” and “quiz” to engage the user.
The input of information is facilitated by the use of question prompts and tools, alternatively to the more formal ‘box ticking’ questionnaires currently put in practice. Flip will help the user to communicate their existing transferable skills and translate them into employable assets. These transferable skills are knowledge and non-job specific abilities acquired during any activity, life experiences and/or training, not necessarily obtained through formal education – that might include experiences as a young carer or peer mentor for example.
This list of skills and abilities would then be set in a language that can be used to write a personal profile for a CV (compatible with traditional careers planning).
Following this the user has a number of choices:
- Download a CV template that will enable them to integrate this information
- Create an online profile, which includes the skill set created. In addition the user will have the opportunity to include a personal statement, which could be done interactively by using new media tools such as video and image uploads.
- Send the profile created to existing organisation(s) and their careers advisors that provide guidance on employment opportunities. The profiles would be confidential and only accessible to the people invited to view them.
The other side of Flip
The potential of this application is that it can also be linked/connected to the receivers of this information: potential employers which might be existing companies and/or organisations that provide direct access to employment opportunities or training schemes that would appeal to young people.
The advisors in these organisations might be existing positions within the employment and rehabilitation system or they can open to be created as a result of this proposal.
Flip’s main goal is to connect young people, public sector organisations and companies together to help create employment opportunities and break the cycle of re-offending.
What is the problem your idea could address?
Our idea intends to address the issue of unemployment among young offenders, as well as young offenders being placed in jobs that do not match their natural skills and competencies.
Employment is the single most important factor in reducing re-offending and failure to get paid employment is a major reason for re-offending. Research in the UK and the US shows that ex-offenders are less likely to be reconvicted if they are employed.
However it’s at least 8 times harder for a person with a criminal record to obtain employment. This is a main social concern considering that the UK has approximately 3000 young offenders currently held in institutions, with a rate of re-offending of 70% once released.
Take this case study as an example to show how Flip could help:
3 weeks after his 15th birthday, Liam, now 20, went to prison for the first time. Liam doesn’t like the idea of spending his life in prison but nor does he see it stopping him from committing crime. He asks himself “How else am I going to earn a decent living. Who would give me a job with my record? I don’t have a home nor an address” . Liam is bright and quick witted and appreciates having learned to read and write because it has enabled him to become adept at “mind games”. – Locked in Locked out, A. Neustatter, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Flip’s main goal is to help young people like Liam to identify their transferable skills in order to access job opportunities and break the crime cycle.
What’s really new about your idea?
It is an innovative approach to employability for young offenders that use a similar language and structure to existing social media (e.g. Facebook and LinkedIn) playing on the familiarity and appeal of such media to young people. It also encourages employers to recognise the value of transferable skills and rethink their recruiting methods.
Flip is part of a holistic vision to tackle the issue of unemployment amongst young offenders. It aims to engage young offenders and connect them with organisations, agencies and advisers that are part of existing career services.
References to transferability applications and existing technologies that could be incorporated into building Flip:
www.skills-translator.net: Translates skills and competencies into other languages – also gives synonyms which can be added to a CV *Note: Core concept and use of technology which can be incorporated into Flip.
www.military.com/skills-translator/mos-translator: translates millitary skills into a civilian career, job roles in army to possible jobs in society *Note: Proof of concept for Flip: re-incorporating a group into employment, although follows traditional format of uploading information.
www.wordia.com: a new kind of dictionary – a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life *Note: Good example of interactive media use (video) and user generated content.
www.youthskills.llsc.on.ca: US website called Youth Skills, designed to help youth explore their skills, learning needs and career goals. *Note: This is a non-visual reference to what our proposal aims to achieve.
What kind of impact will your idea make?
Flip has the potential to make a large positive impact. It is an idea, which is inclusive, allowing a wider audience of young people to engage with it including previous and current offenders. It has a high level of dissemination and reach, as it benefits from online access.
Other organizations and schemes that are already in place may also benefit by being connected to this web service, making the offer to young people stronger and more complete.
We are looking for measurable impact, initially working with a defined group of users during the pilot phase of the project. We aim to offer 10-20 young offenders constructive careers advice with tangible outputs (e.g. CV) useful for job applications.
Why might people want to commission or pay for your idea?
It helps careers advisers working in public sector organisations (such as… job centre, youth offending teams, rehabilitation services, probation services) to deliver a more effective service. It may also allow these public services to engage with more hard to reach user through the referral routes within the website. It may help organisations that are committed supporting and providing opportunities for young offenders in accessing their target users.
What do you think the biggest challenge will be to making this work in practice?
A major challenge is developing the right online environment and language that could appeal to the target audience.
- Engaging the user to input sensitive information.
- Programming the software and make sure that all the sensitive information remains confidential.
- Incorporating the application into existing services
What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place?
Listening to real experiences and journeys that some young offenders have been through helped us identify a real issue. This was strengthened by the realisation that unemployment is one of the main factors that leads to reoffending.
From 1-5, what stage of development would you say your idea was in?
Stage 2. We can already foresee a wide range of possibilities on how this project could be implemented; however it still needs development and research in addition to finding the right people to get on board.
What can we do for you?
There will be a need for web developers and programmers to make a working prototype of the tool. It would also require contacting the different parties that are involved in dealing with potential offenders to understand how we can work together and collaborate to make the tool optimal and pertinent.
Ideally, I would like to be able to interview and speak to young offenders to get their feedback and involve them in co-designing the tool. No one will know better what their situation and needs are.
Ideally we would be able to do a user testing session for the tool. In order to do so, we will need to recruit a sample of the target audience to test the beta version with. We would also need the equipment necessary to record the session and evaluate how the user engages with the tool. This will give us valuable information to make iterations and improve.
If you’re not able to take the idea onward after the weekend, would you be happy for someone else to take ownership of your idea and move it forward?
Yes I would be happy to do so. I would however condition that they are loyal to the idea’s core values and concept. I would also welcome the opportunity to be involved in feeding back and observing its progress.
This idea was submitted by Common Ground.
Common Ground is a young social design agency. Common Ground have a strong interest in applying design processes and methodologies in response to social issues. They have been working as a team in the past on crime related projects, immersing ourselves into the user-misuser-abuser different perspectives.
