The TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2023 celebrate success and excellence in the graduate recruitment space, recognising what recruiters are doing to attract, recruit, onboard, train and retain talent.
Everton in the Community has been shortlisted for The AGCAS award for excellence in careers and employability service engagement category for the roles and training it offers to students as part its Tackling the Blues programme.
Tackling the Blues is a unique mental health prevention and early intervention sports and arts-based education programme delivered in partnership between Edge Hill University, Everton in the Community and Tate Liverpool.
To date 3,222 students have taken part in the programme as lead and support mentors who are provided with training by Everton in the Community and Tate Liverpool staff. Students work on the co-production, delivery and evaluation of the programme gaining experience in working with schools, young people and communities.
Edge Hill’s Head of Careers and Graduate Employability Becka Colley-Foster said: “Tackling the Blues is personally transformative for students by enhancing their likelihood of securing highly skilled work, improving graduate level employability skills, and supporting wider health and wellbeing.
“I’m also immensely proud of the Edge Hill careers team who designed and delivered the mentor and training programmes with support from our incredible partners.”
Over 80% of participating students have progressed to graduate-level employment in education and 66% in sport with jobs ranging from teaching and mental health services to community sport and business management.
Jack Mullineux, Tackling t\he Blues Manager at Everton in the Community, said: “We are delighted that our student mentors from Tackling the Blues have secured employment in a range of competitive sectors, and that the programme and its outcomes have been recognised on this award shortlist.
“Tackling the Blues provides our student mentors with a unique opportunity to gain relevant experience in community sport, art and mental health and allows them to develop important transferable work-based skills which are attractive to employers.
“We’re really proud of the incredible outcomes we’ve seen from the programme and being shortlisted for this award is fantastic recognition for our staff and participants.”
Research also shows that over three-quarters of EHU students who engaged in Tackling the Blues reported improvements in their own mental health literacy, which enabled them to self-manage their mental health and complete their university studies.
The multi-sector benefits of Tackling the Blues have been cited in a range of policy documents, most recently in the UK government policy brief, Moving for Mental Health, and recognised in the receipt of the 2022 Educate North Mental Health and Wellbeing Award and North West Coast Research and Innovation Tackling Health Inequalities Award.
Launched in 2015 to address an unmet mental health need among children and young people, the programme has benefitted the mental health of more than 2,000 6-16-year-olds and nearly 3,000 university students in areas with some of the poorest health and educational wellbeing nationally. It has engaged with more than 30 schools and enabled students to secure graduate-level jobs supporting the mental health of others.
The full awards shortlist can be found on the TARGETjobs award shortlist page. The awards take place on Thursday 23 March in London.
February 27, 2023
