
Apprenticeships Group
THE EPA CONFERENCE
29th SEPT MILLENNIUM POINT, BIRMINGHAM
My Story
Jack Parsons
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Chief Executive Officer
Known as UK’s Chief Youth Officer
Award-winning young entrepreneur
Company
The Youth Group
About Jack
Jack Parsons is an award-winning young entrepreneur, public speaker and subject expert on youth, and is known as the UK’s Chief Youth Officer.
Jack’s been honoured awards over the last 3 years including Young Digital Leader Of The Year, The 100 Faces of a Vibrant Economy, Most Connected Young Entrepreneur, 50 Top kindest leaders and Top 10 UK Young Entrepreneurs to Watch.
Jack is currently the CEO of The Youth Group which is building the world’s largest most connected marketplace and community for young people with one aim: to help improve the odds for young people across the world to achieve their full potential in work.
On top of running The Youth Group Jack advises a number of organisations and figure heads.
Jackson Parsons, (born 11 September 1993), is a British award-winning young entrepreneur, public speaker, and subject expert on youth. Parsons is the Founder and CEO of The Youth Group.
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Parsons was born on 11 September 1993. He grew up in Romford, Essex on a council estate funded by government and lived in a single-parent household with his mother during his formative years. Parsons left secondary school with only a few GCSEs] Parsons’ father was a black cab driver in London.
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Parsons became his own carer at the age of five. He had dyslexia and attended speech therapy sessions to improve his reading and writing until the age of eight. Parsons took up a paper round job as a means of funding judo classes. Parsons attained a black belt certification at the age of 14. In later childhood, Parsons lived with his father after his mother went to rehabilitation for alcohol addiction.
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Parsons took a business administration apprenticeship at a local insurance broker. After six months he was promoted onto the sales team. However, before Parsons could complete the apprenticeship, the company ceased trading.
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Following the collapse of his apprenticeship, Parsons took on an internship at a recruitment firm. As the firm typically only accepted applicants with a degree, Parsons volunteered to work unpaid for three months.
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Parsons generated £60,000 in his first three months and later earned £700,000 for the company at the age of 21.
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Parsons soon became a top biller in the firm and remained so for three years, winning himself and the company multiple national awards including Best Newcomer to the Industry.
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Despite his success, Parsons found himself unable to secure a promotion due to being substantially younger than most of the other staff.
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In this time Parsons realised there were many other young people in a similar position, struggling to find opportunities given their lack of qualifications.
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Parsons’ first business venture was a tuck shop set up in school, which eventually produced equivalent earnings to a full time salary of a doctor. Parsons later took on an apprenticeship at a local insurance broker, before joining a recruitment firm with an unpaid work experience placement, eventually becoming a top biller at the firm.
Leaving the corporate sphere, Parsons founded The Youth Group, an international youth-first enterprise which helps to hire, train, and mentor young people. Parsons has also advised a number of organisations and officials on youth issues and is known as the UK’s Chief Youth Officer.
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In 2015, he gained experience in the corporate industry in his early twenties and decided to switch careers with the strong ambition to start his own company. He had little salary, no degree or knowledge of how to form a business and believed that money and education were not the only way to achieve his passion for making a difference to the lives of young people but through his motto of the three C´s: “Chaos, Consistency and Clarity”.
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In 2018, Parsons had lost a close family member and he was moving from Essex to London at the time of bereavement and had some mental health challenges. To deal with this, he posted about mental health on LinkedIn which received over 9,000 likes, 22,000 messages and 15 million views of young people and businesses reaching out.
Alongside his business portfolio, Parsons advises numerous organisations and figureheads. Parsons has been a patron of the charities. Parsons is also a member of Creative UK’s Creative Sector Startup Loans Advisory Group. Additionally, Parsons sits on the Co-op Inclusion and Equality advisory board. Furthermore, Parsons is a special advisor to the New Zealand government.
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In the first Lockdown Jack, who lives alone, found out he had skin cancer which caused a lot of distress and challenge for Jack both physically and mentally and fought Skin Cancer for most of the first and second lockdown before getting the call clear. In that time Jack and his team grew The Youth Group about 700% since the start of the lockdown helping young people thrive including supporting Rishi’s with the kickstart scheme and youth unemployment.
Contact
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