Hire amazing
young people.
Recruit the best young talent from untapped new pools, and future-proof your organisation.
Our programme helps connect environmental employers with driven, passionate young people you wouldn't reach through traditional hiring.
If you're doing work that directly benefits our environment, we want to hear from you.
We’ll help you frame your role, promote it to our networks of high-potential, underrepresented young people, and support you to identify the best new talent.
Then, once you’ve hired your new trainee, we’ll work with both of you throughout the year to make sure your trainees can flourish in their placement and bring your organisation the most value.
How it works
Our approach is designed to make sure you get the very best young talent, and they're able to hit the ground running to support your work.
We help you recruit incredible junior staff.
We’ll work with you to shape and frame a role and description that young people can understand and recognise as an opportunity, cutting the jargon and making it as appealing as possible.
We then promote your roles as part of a cohort of similar entry-level opportunities, working with local networks and going through non-traditional channels to help get it in front of high-potential candidates from under-tapped pools in the region.
You get access to our bespoke applicant scoring tool, which helps you remove biases and spot the candidates who could bring the most to the role.
And we’ll help you throughout the selection process with advice and support to make sure that both you and your prospective new hires are getting the best possible outcomes.
We support them to flourish in their first role.
To make sure that they have the skills and support they need to hit the ground running, your trainee will take part in a year-long programme of support and learning alongside other young people working at a range of environmental organisations.
This includes:
An environmental leadership learning programme, structured around the Inner Development Goals, to develop key soft skills and work-ready mindsets.
A peer-to-peer action learning set to unpack and solve the various challenges and issues they might encounter during those crucial first months of work.
One-to-one coaching where they can work through any challenges and plan their development route in the placement and onwards to their career.
You learn with peers how to embed change within your organisation.
Alongside the trainee learning programme, we offer bi-monthly sessions for our host employers, alternating between expert-facilitated DEI discussions and peer-to-peer action learning.
You get to explore what it takes to embed better, more inclusive, and more effective practices for developing the next generation of exceptional talent.
You join the YES collective.
Being part of YES is a public commitment to excellent, entry-level, equitable employment. You get to prove your commitment to the next generation, showcasing the social and economic value your organisation can offer to the region.
The benefits for your organisation
Being a YES employer is a win-win: you get to do well as an organisation while doing good within your local community.
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We get your roles in front of the young people that traditional jobs boards miss
YES Bristol roles receive on average 40 applications per position, with more than half coming from young people from communities that are underrepresented in the environmental sector.
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Our tools and guidance follow industry best-practice, helping to streamline and optimise your process from application to offer.
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We help with the heavy lifting of trainee development, helping them build skills, connections, and mindsets that will enable them to flourish in their roles.
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Every trainee has access to 1-2-1 career coaching, as well as support through their peers, reducing the risk of early exits and setting them up for a career in your team.
So far on our programmes less than 5% of trainees left their role within the first twelve months.
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Our community of practice gives you space to explore the changes required to embed a more inclusive culture and begin building a workforce that can deliver the environmental change we need.
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Turn recruitment into a measurable asset for ESG reporting, with concrete data on how you are actively driving social mobility and community reinvestment.
Who this is for
We’re keen to partner with organisations with a strong environmental mission, who are actively working to create a healthy and sustainable planet for future generations.
YES could be for you if you are…
Leading a small or mid-sized organisation, a YES trainee is a cost-effective way to build capacity without as much of the risk of hiring on your own. We handle recruitment and development so you don't have to build your approach from scratch.
An ECG manager or CSR lead, hosting a YES Bristol trainee is a direct, measurable social value action and a genuine investment in the green skills pipeline, feeding into ESG reporting.
In HR or talent acquisition, we act as your entry-level recruitment extension. We remove CV-screening bias, reach candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, and deliver a vetted shortlist in our bespoke shortlisting tool - all without adding to your internal workload.
A project manager or programme lead, we’ll help you find young people that are there to get stuck into the work you need help with, freeing you up for higher-level delivery. We support them in building skills so they can thrive, and we're on hand to support if any challenges arise.
Our eligibility requirements
We're looking for organisations who can offer substantive, paid work that contributes to environmental goals, and who are open to the idea that the best candidate might not look like your previous hires.
You need to be able to:
Offer 12-month full or part-time roles, paid at either the Real Living Wage or as an apprenticeship.
Be able to start your trainees in either in Spring or Autumn (which means ready to recruit in Winter or Summer respectively).
Commit to taking real action on diversity by bringing exceptional young people into your team and actively opening doors for them to succeed.
Free them up for up to one day each month as part of the learning and development programme within their YES cohort.
Nominate one staff member to participate in your own programme of development, learning, and evaluation.
Where we work
Right now our focus is in the West of England with our flagship YES Bristol programme.
This means that any roles created through YES need to be physically located within a commutable distance to Bristol city centre so that your trainee can take part in the learning programme offer.
Each cohort has a maximum of 20 places for employers, and we’re always keen to bring in new employers who can offer incredible opportunities.
The best next step is a conversation.
If you’d like to find out more, or you want to sign-up to create a role through our programme, please get in touch via the form below: