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1,000 young people, 65 employers, and a welding simulator in a Norfolk field

Qurexa Editorial Team27 October 20267 min read 0 0
1,000 young people, 65 employers, and a welding simulator in a Norfolk field

What happened

On Monday 26 October 2026, Norfolk held its first Youth Guarantee Jobs Fair. It took place at AgriFest, an agricultural event in the county. More than 1,000 young people came. Around 65 employers and partner organisations took part. They included farms, food producers, utility companies, retailers, training providers and the Royal Navy. It was not a room full of leaflets. There were virtual reality welding simulators, so people could try the motion of a weld without the risk. There was HGV training. There was an exercise in building a water irrigation network, which is a real job in a county that grows a lot of food. There was also an "employability zone", with help on searching for jobs, filling in applications and preparing for interviews. The event sits inside the government's Youth Guarantee. That is a commitment that every young person under 25 should be offered one of four things: a job, continued education, an apprenticeship, or a traineeship, work experience placement or Sector-Based Work Academy Programme. The wider youth employment package is backed by £2.5 billion. The government says it will support almost one million young people and create 500,000 opportunities. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: "Every young person deserves the chance to fulfil their potential."

Why this matters

A lot of young people are not short of ambition. They are short of information. If nobody in your family works in a particular industry, you may genuinely not know that the industry has jobs, what those jobs are called, or how someone gets one. Careers advice in schools can only cover so much ground. Farming and food production is a good example. Many people picture it as either driving a tractor or nothing. In practice it includes engineering, refrigeration, logistics, laboratory work, data analysis, animal health and plenty more. The farmer and influencer known as Farmer Will, who took part, made the point simply: "giving young people the chance to meet employers and find out what opportunities are actually out there is really important." The word "actually" is doing the work there. Not what a website says exists. What a person standing in front of you says they are hiring for. There is also a practical advantage to these events that is easy to miss. The employers in the room have already decided they want to recruit young people. That is a far better room to be in than a general job search, where most of your applications go to organisations that have not thought about it at all. And Norfolk is a county where this matters. Rural areas tend to have fewer employers within easy travelling distance, and public transport can make a job that looks close on a map impossible in practice.

What the evidence actually says

The figures are worth reading carefully, because two different numbers are easy to confuse. Over 1,000 young people attended this fair. Separately, the government says earlier Youth Guarantee fairs in Bristol, Glasgow, Cardiff, Nottingham and London have between them helped over 1,000 young people move into jobs, work experience or training. Those are different measures. One is attendance at a single event. The other is outcomes across five events in large cities. Attending is not the same as being hired. That is not a criticism of the scheme, but it does mean nobody should read "1,000 attended" as "1,000 got jobs". The £2.5 billion package, almost one million young people supported and 500,000 opportunities created are government targets. They are what the scheme is aiming at, not what it has achieved. What the evidence does support is narrower and still useful: events like this put young people in front of employers who are actively recruiting, and provide practical help with the parts of job hunting that people find hardest. There is a long-standing body of evidence that direct contact with employers improves young people's chances, which is why these events exist. The real test will be whether rural fairs like this one produce the same outcomes as the city ones, in places where getting to work is harder.

Qurexa perspective

We are a Lincolnshire company, in healthcare logistics and pharmacy delivery. So we recognise the problem this event is trying to solve. The jobs we and businesses like ours offer are not obvious from the outside. "Healthcare logistics" is not a phrase many 17-year-olds have heard. Yet it involves driving, warehouse and stock work, customer contact with vulnerable people, cold chain handling, route planning, and the regulated side of handling medicines. Most young people in a rural county will never have had those explained to them. That is not their failing. It is ours, collectively, for not turning up where they are. If you are a young person in Lincolnshire thinking about work rather than more study, it is worth knowing that logistics and pharmacy support roles exist near you, that many of them train you on the job, and that the sector is not going to shrink while the population gets older. We mention it because this article is about young people not knowing what is out there. It would be odd to leave out our own corner of it.

Practical advice

If you are under 25 and not in work or training, start with the Youth Guarantee. Your local Jobcentre can explain which of the four pathways you qualify for. You do not have to be claiming benefits to ask what is available. Use the National Careers Service at nationalcareers.service.gov.uk. It is free, it is government-run, and it has a phone line as well as a website if you would rather talk to someone. If you are interested in an apprenticeship, search the official listings via GOV.UK rather than general job boards. Apprenticeships are paid, and you do not need A-levels for most of them. Go to the events. A jobs fair is two hours of your life and a chance to talk to people who are hiring. Take a few copies of a one-page CV, even a simple one. Ask employers two specific questions: what does someone in their first year actually do, and what did the last person they hired have on their CV. Those answers are far more useful than a brochure. If you are a parent or carer, the single most helpful thing is often transport. A job 12 miles away with no bus is not a job offer, it is a logistics problem. Work that out early.

What to know

Norfolk's first Youth Guarantee Jobs Fair was held at AgriFest on 26 October 2026. More than 1,000 young people attended and around 65 employers and partners took part, from farms and food producers to utilities, retailers, training providers and the Royal Navy. Attendees could try VR welding, HGV training and an irrigation-building exercise, and get help with applications and interviews. The event sits within the Youth Guarantee, which promises every under-25 a job, further education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship-style placement. The wider £2.5 billion package aims to support almost a million young people and create 500,000 opportunities. Those are targets, not results. Earlier fairs in five cities have helped over 1,000 young people into jobs, training or work experience. Attendance figures and outcome figures are not the same thing. If you are under 25 and unsure what to do next, the free National Careers Service and your local Jobcentre are the practical starting points. Sources: GOV.UK / Department for Work and Pensions, "Thousands of young people put down roots in agricultural careers at Jobs Fair", 26 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-young-people-put-down-roots-in-agricultural-careers-at-jobs-fair — National Careers Service, https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/ — GOV.UK, "Become an apprentice", https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship This article is for general information and is not careers, employment or benefits advice. For guidance on your own situation, contact the National Careers Service or your local Jobcentre. Nothing here replaces advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#youth employment#apprenticeships#careers#Youth Guarantee#agriculture#skills

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