Green Tech Matters feat. YES

As part of the ‘Green Tech Matters’ series we spoke with Jess Clynewood, co-director at The Youth Environmental Service (YES). YES connects young people with paid, entry-level green careers, breaking barriers and building a diverse, skilled workforce. This article explores its impact, challenges, and how to get involved.

At ADLIB we take our environmental responsibilities seriously, we get involved, we feature, support and champion Green Tech businesses, those that disrupt and are on a similar journey.

What is the Youth Environmental Service (YES)?

YES helps more young people from all parts of our society into green careers through paid, one-year, entry-level placements at a range of leading environmental organisations. The idea is simple: trainees get hands-on experience, build skills and connections, and start their journey into the green economy; environmental organisations benefit from fresh talent and new perspectives, creating the conditions for a just green transition.

There’s a real need for this: tackling climate change and biodiversity breakdown requires a skilled, passionate workforce. Yet many young people are still struggling to break into the working world, let alone the environmental sector. They lack both the awareness of the green careers out there, and the belief they could access them. Alongside this, there just aren’t enough entry level opportunities available, especially paid at a liveable wage. This is especially true for those young people facing additional structural barriers: coming from global majority ethnicities, growing up facing socioeconomic disadvantage, or living with disabilities.

By offering properly paid and genuinely entry level placements and helping young people from under-represented backgrounds access them, we’re hoping to fix these problems and help build the workforce we need, now and for the future.

Alongside their day-to-day roles, our trainees benefit from support to ensure they can flourish. This includes a dedicated career coach to guide their growth, as well as being part of a network of peers, all finding their feet in the sector at the same time. There’s also a participatory learning programme throughout their year aimed at helping them build the skills, mindsets, and connections they’ll need.

On the other side, our host employers receive support to create and fill the roles, from advice on introducing more accessible recruitment practices, to outreach into under-served communities through our networks. They also have access to their own peer-led learning programme, where they can learn from each other and from DEI experts the practical steps they can take to build a more inclusive and accessible work culture.

We want to provide life-changing experiences for young people, especially those who are disadvantaged in the labour market. We also want to build long-term skilled capacity in the environmental sector that can deliver our environmental needs. And we want to help transform the environmental movement, making it more inclusive and diverse as part of achieving a just green transition.

What Kind of Placements Are Available?

We work with a range of organisations across the environmental spectrum. The main criteria is that each role has to be entry-level (with no requirement for previous experience) and directly creating a positive environmental impact.

That could be anything from working in a nature recovery organisation to bring more green spaces and wildlife into our lives, to supporting the low-carbon energy transition or helping create buildings and spaces that are more eco-friendly and energy efficient. We want to work with a wide range of organisations across our seven target sectors, to create a joined up group of young people who can understand their role in the context of how we are working to transform the whole environmental system.

We want to show the range of green career paths, and the wide variety of skill sets required. That’s why YES is looking for both practical and desk-based roles across different departments within our host organisations. This could mean a trainee supporting project planning and design, policy and strategy, communications, fundraising, or getting their hands dirty with project delivery. So, if an organisation (private, public or charitable) does anything related to our seven sectors, chances are there’s a way for a young person to get involved and make a meaningful contribution!

What Challenges Do Young People Face in the Green Economy?

We hear from young people all the time about the barriers they face when trying to start a green career. The reality is that many young people, especially those from marginalised communities, are facing huge economic challenges right now. There are currently over a million young people in the UK who are NEET (not in education, employment, or training), and the economic downturn is hitting them the hardest.

Some of the biggest barriers include:

Lack of awareness and belief – Many young people are passionate about the environment but simply don’t know where to start when it comes to careers in the environmental sector. Their teachers and parents aren’t familiar with the range of new roles being created as we transform our economy, and they don’t have visible role models who are creating the paths for them to follow.

High bars for entry – Too many entry-level jobs still ask for prior experience, creating a frustrating catch-22 where young people can’t get experience because they don’t already have it. We also see many roles requiring a degree-level qualification even when there’s little correlation with their success in the role. The sad reality is that degrees aren’t evenly distributed, and so if your entry-level role sets the bar that high, you’re immediately missing out on a huge pool of potential talent.

Low financial incentives – Unpaid internships, volunteering, and poorly paid roles are still a big part of the environmental sector. While we recognise the economic realities facing many organisations at the moment, the lack of fairly paid work makes it impossible for many young people, especially those from low-income backgrounds, to get their foot in the door.

Mental health challenges – While young people aren’t the only ones struggling with their mental health, it is a more acute and consistent challenge in this generation. Nearly half (43%) of young people think anxiety will be one of their biggest barriers to finding work, now or in the future. The longer they remain unemployed, the more anxious they become, creating a downward spiral that takes them further from the labour market.

That’s why paid placements like the ones YES offers are so important. By removing some of the financial and social barriers we can make green careers accessible to a wider and more diverse range of young people.

Which Businesses Have You Worked With So Far?

Our previous programme, New to Nature, gave us the opportunity to work with some fantastic organisations. It was an ambitious paid work placement programme focused specifically in the nature sector, creating life-changing opportunities for nearly 100 young people from underrepresented backgrounds. More than 80 charity and public sector

organisations took part, including The Woodland Trust, RSPB, The Conservation Volunteers, and the WWF. We’re now working on our new, regional programme YES: Bristol, which is due to launch in the West of England later this year. Building on the success of New to Nature, we’re evolving the concept by broadening our focus to include the whole environmental sector and opening the door to working with all types of businesses. We’ve already had some fantastic organisations sign up to potentially offer placements, including City to Sea and Natural England. We’re not finished recruiting host employers though, and we’re always looking for more businesses to join us: the more placements we can offer, the bigger the impact we can make!

How Do Young People Apply, and How Do Businesses Sign Up?

For young people, it’s simple: once the next round of opportunities go live this summer they can visit our website, check out the roles near them, and apply for the ones that sound most exciting. We use a streamlined application process that prioritises their attitude and enthusiasm instead of any experience or connections they might have. We’re also working with a range of youth organisations across the region to make sure the opportunities get spread far and wide to those young people who would benefit most.

For organisations, it’s just as easy to get involved. If you’re interested in offering a placement in our next cohort (starting Autumn 2025), and you’re able to meet our eligibility criteria, then all you need to do is reach out to Jess and set up a conversation. We’ll help you refine the role to make sure it appeals, promote it with our networks to help you access our diverse talent pools, and then work with you throughout the year to make sure your trainee is set up to thrive.

How Can People Support YES?

If you’re reading this and thinking ‘this sounds great, how can I help?’ there are a few ways:

Create a placement – If your organisation would benefit from fantastic diverse talent, check whether you’re eligible to take part and get in touch to explore how!

Spread the word within your networks – We want to reach as many businesses as possible, to be able to provide a range of opportunities that showcase the breadth of environmental careers available..

Signpost us to diverse young people – We’d love to get the opportunities in front of passionate young people that want to make a difference. Please direct anyone you think might be suitable to our website or Instagram to stay updated for when the next set of opportunities goes live.

Provide funding or resources – Donations and partnerships are always gratefully received, helping us expand the programme, support more trainees and increase our impact.

Above all, we’re always open to a conversation to explore how you might get involved. This is intended to be a collaborative effort, and we want to work together to open up more amazing opportunities for young people as part of building a workforce ready to take on the environmental challenges we face. Please contact jess@youthenvironmentalservice.co.uk or visit youthenvironmentalservice.co.uk to find out more and sign up!

If you’re interested in hearing more from innovative GreenTech pioneers you should join the ADLIB sponsored meetup community – Green Tech South West