Once upon a time when still in school we all used to do casual work to get some money. Cutting grass, washing up (in cafes), stacking shelves in shops. But as well as giving us that important bit of money it did something else – introduced us all to the world and culture of work. Paid work. Quite different from being in school, being educated. The recent (very worrying) report by Alan Milburn into the ‘NEET’ (Not in Education, Employment or Training) group of youngsters, which is creating a lost generation of the young who don’t work or understand the working culture. But a St John’s student, Oscar Barnett has launched something that might help – here. He’s created ‘Work4You‘ – or ‘Wrk4U‘ – which is there to let youngsters get those bits of work, those semi-casual jobs and get some money, whilst giving us the chance to get our lawns mowed, hedges cut or if in business, our shelves stacked in our shops. Or get customers served in our cafes.
It’s a system that matches up what we need with what the young want – and can do. It’s simple, it’s been carefully and thoroughly created with all issues of safeguarding and reliability etc. Aspects of the system designed to make it all work, for the youngsters and for those who need youngsters to help.
How did this happen? Oscar tells us:
“The idea for Wrk4u was made in early 2025 but the spark as a coule of years earlier. I was 16 years old and wanted to find local work, I was desperate for some extra money and I had experience in cutting grass and other garden activities from my neighbour In which I did every Thursday. This gave me a lot of experience and wanted to see if anyone else in the village needed any work. I made some leaflets and went and posted them all around the village. The success rate was very little as only some people reached out. When I thought why they didn’t reach out it could have been because they didn’t known the experience I had or trusted me to do a good job. So I thought why not make a platform where people can post jobs when they needed them done. I thought this would be so much more effective as it would allow people to go on the app and look at a specific area and surround areas of job opportunities that they could go and do to earn some money and experience. I think gaining this experience as young people is crucial for independence as it shows real world working life. It also lies in the hands of the young people to actually want to go and work which again incentives independence.“
This is Oscar’s Wrk4U.
He adds: “It wasn’t easy as I had no idea where to start. My dad helped me a lot in this process, and I went through the stages of getting my idea on paper and trying to find out how I can make it a legitimate business. This took a long time as I had no experience and kept go back from idea to idea to idea and all the other things that would be important to make it work. An example of this would be safeguarding.
“After what was a programme of research (didn’t quite think of it like that), talking with those who wanted work and wanted to work – and getting over the obstacle that people would see what I was doing – a 17yr old offering something – as a scam – Wrk4U started to take shape“.
Now it’s here and ready to be launched. Oscar realises that to make it work, properly and for everyone involved there will be a ‘learning process’ and so he’s looking for communication from all involved to understand what is happening and to make those necessary ‘tweaks’ that will make Wrk4U even better for all concerned.
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