Across the UK, almost one million young people are currently not earning or learning. Behind each number is someone navigating uncertainty, low confidence, disrupted education or a lack of access to good local opportunities. At Seetec, we believe helping young people find their path into work or training is not only a national priority. It is everybody’s business.
In 2025, our employee owners supported more than 50,000 young people into employment, education, apprenticeships or skills training. It is one of the largest youth support footprints in the UK — and the need for this support continues to grow.
Why belief and opportunity matter
Our group CEO, John Baumback, knows what a single opportunity can unlock. He joined Seetec as a 16 year old apprentice in 1984, the year the company was founded. His four-decade journey — recognised in 2025 with the ERSA Lifetime Achievement Award — is a reminder of the lasting power of apprenticeships, belief and support.
When you give a young person a chance, they often achieve far more than they thought possible. Helping young people earn or learn is everybody’s business, because our workforce, our economy and our communities depend on it.
John Baumback, Seetec Group CEO
Apprenticeships opening doors to careers young people may not know exist
Apprenticeships remain one of the strongest routes into good work. Since April 2025, more than 60% of people joining our apprenticeship programmes have been aged 16 to 24. Many enter sectors they never realised were an option — including freight forwarding and logistics.
Working with global employers like GEODIS, we are helping build a sustainable talent pipeline in a sector that has long faced national skills shortages.
If an apprentice moves up, we bring another in. We don’t put junior roles out to agencies anymore. We always go through the apprentice programme.
Debbie Morley, GEODIS
Young people gain hands-on experience, a salary, industry recognised qualifications and a debt free route into a long-term career. Employers gain committed new talent at a time when workforce shortages are increasing nationwide.
A joined up, employee owned model supporting people, employers and places
Seetec is an employee owned organisation. This means our colleagues are also our owners, and they bring their lived experience and local insight into the design of all our services.
We deliver apprenticeships, employability support, justice and rehabilitation programmes, skills training and wellbeing support across the UK. Because colleagues live in the same communities we serve, our support is shaped around real local needs, not assumptions.
Employee ownership amplifies our voice and connects the people who support young people every day with decisions at the highest level.
Holly Dono, Seetec employee trustee director
This model aligns closely with the Government’s new locally driven skills plans, which place greater emphasis on linking young people to opportunities rooted in local labour markets.
Supporting young people facing the greatest barriers
Some young people face challenges that make it harder to move into work. Neurodivergent young people, for example, often experience additional barriers and require specialist support.
Through our Community Interest Company, Pluss, we provide tailored, person centred help for young people facing multiple disadvantages. In 2025, Pluss colleague and employee owner Andrea Meade won the national Superstar Support Worker award at the Stars of Learning Disability & Autism Awards for her exceptional work helping neurodivergent young people build confidence, independence and long-term career prospects.
A year of impact worth sharing
Our 2025/26 annual review highlights the stories, data and impact behind this work — from apprenticeships and youth employment to specialist support and community partnerships. It reflects how an employee owned organisation can deliver meaningful change at scale, powered by people who believe deeply in the potential of every young person they meet.
Young people deserve belief, opportunity and practical support. When we help them earn or learn, we strengthen the whole country.
Helping young people is everybody’s business. And as an employee owned organisation rooted in our communities, Seetec — alongside the thousands of inclusive, future focused employers we partner with — will be at the heart of helping the next generation thrive.
Employee ownership
United together in our passion for changing lives and building better futures. We believe employee ownership is the way forward.
