What has the pandemic meant for young charity freelancers?

Elliot Bidgood writes about trends in young freelancing and the need for more opportunities from civil society to support young freelancers following the pandemic.

While the average freelancer in the UK is in their late 40s, in recent years there has been an influx of young people into the freelance economy. In 2019, the number of freelancers in the 16-29 age band grew by 12%. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has since represented a particular challenge for these younger workers. They have energy and talent to offer, but may have had less opportunity to develop the networks to weather the crisis.

 The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) publishes an annual look at the workforce. Their 2020 Self-Employed Landscape report issued dire warnings about self-employed and freelance workers as a whole, finding a 341% increase in reliance of Universal Credit and the first shrinkage in UK self-employment in over a decade. One of the sharpest 2020 decreases in people working for themselves came among the young self-employed (down 11%).

IPSE also carried out a survey into the mental health of freelancers in 2020, finding nearly a 50% drop in the number of 16-34s reporting “good” or “excellent” mental health since the onset of the pandemic. And some of young self-employed have spoken about particular eligibility issues they have faced with government financial support schemes.

However, IPSE also reported the largest group of freelancers fell into associate “SOC3” occupations, including artists, writers, and marketing and business professionals. 845,000 people worked in these roles, actually up 3% on the year before, and SOC3 workers tend to be younger on average, as many of these junior creative and communications-oriented roles are attractive to Millennials and Gen Z. And while conditions may be tough, a difficult full-time employment market for young people is pushing some towards freelancing as a way to gain income, experience or make a social difference.

Now more than ever, this means initiatives from civil society to support young people making a fist of freelancing are vital. The Genesis Foundation has launched a £1m Kickstart Fund to support freelance creative professionals, at a time when the arts and culture sector has been hit hard by the pandemic. The London Transport Museum runs a Young Freelancers programme providing a living wage and valuable skills across digital marketing, project management, curating and more for those aspiring to work in the heritage sector (they’ve also published a series of blogs by their participants, giving voice to their experiences). And the Prince’s Trust provides workshops and signposting to other support for under 30s pursuing self-employment.

Further, some young freelancers are also marketing their skills directly to the social sector through PeoplePerHour, the Charity Excellence Freelancer Register or the CharityComms freelance directory. But the established sector needs to provide more support and new platforms for young freelancers, to in turn enable them to provide their valuable skills to organisations at a time when resources are stretched.

If you are a young freelancer or portfolio careerist working in and around the civil society sector, we at the Eastside Primetimers Foundation would love to hear more about your experiences. Contact us at elliotb@ep-uk.org.

Elliot Bidgood is a freelancer and works as communications manager for the Eastside Primetimers Foundation.