Friday 15th July is International Youth Skills Day 2022! The day seeks to highlight the importance of engaging young people in the workforce. It also encourages teaching the youth the skills they will need to successfully manage evolving challenges in their personal life and career and hopes to prepare them with the resilience to adapt in their future.
To celebrate, we spoke to our Employability and Skills Officer Kevin and Lewis and William, who are currently doing a traineeship here at The Foundation, with the aim to better their skills in employment to help them thrive in the working world. Both are ‘Trainee Sustainability Advisors’ and are raising awareness while working on implementing new ideas to improve our environmental and sustainable impact.
International youth skills day is a wonderful recognition of young people’s continued professional development. At Stevenage FC foundation, we have embraced the growth of youth skills by recruiting and developing our kick starters, traineeships, and apprentices. We have employed young people across a variety of different roles across the foundation and the club. We are extremely proud of the progression of our young people, and we continue to invest in upskilling the young people of Stevenage and the surrounding areas.
Kevin Beckles
Employability and Skills Officer

I entered the role as assistant sustainability advisor completely by chance; it’s nothing like any role I’ve worked in before, but it’s a welcome change. I attended the job fair at North Herts College, and after a conversation with Kevin, felt that a traineeship was what I needed to take my career forward and learn new skills. I have enjoyed working for a club that I’ve followed for a number of years, and have found the sustainability project exciting and engaging. The foundation team are a friendly and accommodating group, and I felt part of the office from the word go; it’s been fantastic to get hands on experience of being in an office environment.
Lewis Welham
Traineeship Sustainability Advisor
I have been taking part in a traineeship for Stevenage FC Foundation for a month now in the Sustainability subsection. I have learned a ton about this field through the time I’ve spent here, and I’ve worked on the sustainability of Stevenage FCF. It was a very good change and I’ve been very open to learning how to make the club sustainable and budgeting for all of the potential solutions. As well as this, I’ve found meeting the rest of the office very easy and I was made to feel part of the office right from the off, and I got to know everyone by the end of the week. Working here has been phenomenal and I wouldn’t switch it out for anything else.
William Ironside
Traineeship Sustainability Advisor