There’s plenty of hope for Neets. I should know – I was one | Helena Kiely

Official figures released today show that more than one in 10 young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training (Neet). There are 407,000 young women who are Neet, and for a while I was one of them. Now I’m using my experience to help others like me find work.

I left school at 11 with no qualifications. Brought up in a family of Irish Travellers in London, this is what most people my age did. The schools I attended did not understand or appreciate my ethnicity. I was stereotyped. Their view that all Irish Travellers were bare-knuckle boxers or antisocial meant me and my siblings were made to sit in the dinner hall during playtime because we were “too streetwise” in case we played too hard with the other children.

I largely missed out on secondary school education, so, while others learned fractions or English history I looked after my younger brothers and learned to keep a home. I had such a negative experience with the non-travellers in the little time I did have in secondary school that I spent my teenage years only engaging with people from the Gypsy or Travelling community.

I went back into education at 16 and studied functional skills, English and maths before applying for and completing an NVQ in childhood studies. I began campaigning at the London Gypsy and Traveller Unit to raise awareness of the barriers Gypsies and Irish Travellers face in accessing and sustaining mainstream education. During this time I completed an access course and went on to become the first person in my family to go to university. I graduated in 2014 with a first class degree in youth and community work.

In my final year of university I began working at the Really Neet Project and, at 28, I am now the joint director. Every day I meet people with low aspirations and barriers that prevent them achieving their dreams. Homelessness, substance misuse, lone parenting and mental health problems are all commonplace. Our work aims to empower each individual and help them to break down those barriers, before supporting them to gain qualifications and jobs. We offer support such as spending the day finding them accommodation or applying for a birth certificate with them, so they have the proof needed to apply for benefits or work.

I have realised that I can use my experience to empower young people. Having been in their shoes, I can relate to them in a way that jobcentres cannot. In return, they see me as proof that it is possible to overcome their challenges. By building a relationship with each young person, we can understand the issues they face and give them personalised support. The service we provide has been really successful and this week I won the Young Women’s Trust’s “influencer” award for my work.

Working with society’s disengaged Neet young people, I have learned that we have to be flexible in our approach, personalise our support to each individual and recognise that no two young people are the same. Policymakers should avoid restrictive policies, like the cut to education funding for those aged 19 and older, that indirectly discriminates against those who are most isolated – the people I work with. Policies like this fail to understand that everyone is different and not all those aged 19-plus are job-ready. It only creates more barriers for young people trying to get work.

I know how tough it can be to not have qualifications and not feel like you have any career options. But I’ve seen how much young people can achieve when given the right support – and I am a living testament to that. Like me, most of the 407,000 Neet young women want to get qualified and find jobs. Helping these young women back into work, education and training would make a huge difference both to them and to the economy. Let’s rethink the services on offer for young people and give them the support they need.