Employers across York and North Yorkshire are encouraged to register for a free and easy-to-use online platform that connects them directly with local schools and colleges.
The York and North Yorkshire Careers Hub Collaboration Portal is designed to ‘bridge the gap’ between education and the world of work, making it simpler than ever for employers to engage with future talent and build sustainable relationships. Through the portal, businesses can promote opportunities such as apprenticeship recruitment days, offer work placements, and respond to direct requests from schools and colleges for careers-related activities like mock interviews and workplace visits.
Already, 64 schools and colleges have signed up to the platform, eager to collaborate with employers to help students explore career pathways and gain real-world experience.
Jennifer Wood, Chair of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Business Board, said: “The portal provides a great way for employers to connect with schools and colleges. That’s helping to showcase their industries, set-up work experience placements, develop meaningful outreach opportunities and, ultimately, help develop a future workforce employers in our region need. Mayor David Skaith and I encourage employers to sign-up to the portal and start making these valuable connections.”
Among the 40 employers which have already signed up is Equans.
Courtney Ward, social value officer at Equans, is from the construction arm of the business. She said: “I’m using the Collaboration Portal to engage with schools and colleges across York and North Yorkshire. It’s been very useful to me as I hadn’t worked in these areas before, so I didn’t have these connections. The schools can find me, and I can put my offers out there, so it’s really useful and it saves me time.
“The Collaboration Portal is such a vital resource. We’re trying to encourage more people to come into what we call green jobs. Retrofit is a huge industry at the moment, and we really want kids to look into this as an opportunity for some really good careers.”
Our Careers Hub
The portal is led by York and North Yorkshire Careers Hub, which brings together schools, colleges, employers, and apprenticeship providers. The goal is to make it easier for schools and colleges to improve how they prepare young people for their next steps.
Embedded within the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, it is one of 44 Careers Hubs in England. This network is overseen by The Careers & Enterprise Company, the national body for careers education in England.
The York and North Yorkshire Careers Hub supports the area’s 76 secondary, post-16, further education colleges and special education needs and alternative learning institutes. That amounts to around 50,000 learners aged 11 to 25.
The York and North Yorkshire Careers Hub Collaboration Portal is available here: https://careershub.yorknorthyorks-ca.gov.uk/
Published on Wednesday 12 November 2025