A number of business including the Watford Observer have joined forces with Watford FC and its Community Sports and Education Trust to launch a new initiative that aims to educate and inspire young people into the world of work.

The Watford FC Youth Network (WYN) will be aimed at 12 to 25-year-olds and will compliment the Trust’s current youth provision.

The young people on WYN’s programmes will have access to a range of opportunities in the Watford area, sector specific training and career related activity via a number of resources, guest speaker workshops and personal connections.

The Trust’s Community Director Rob Smith said: “We are proud of our positive track record in the youth engagement sector, but we are always looking for ways to improve our offer.

“The Watford FC Youth Network allows us to do just that; with the generous support and knowledge of many local businesses we can give young people a unique view of the world of work and hopefully inspire the next generation of business people.”

This new initiative has arisen thanks to the work of the Watford FC Premier Network (WPN).

The Hornets established WPN in 2019 to connect local businesses through a love of sport, providing events and networking opportunities to celebrate stories and share learnings from across both business and sport.

Joint founder of WPN and Commercial Director at Watford FC Paul O’Brien said: “Right from the outset we wanted to create a supportive and inspirational professional network that would unite the business community with a mutual love of Watford and sport.

“With the ethos of WPN being about growing together, it seemed the next most logical step was to work with the Trust’s youth development team to develop a professional support network for the young people in our community, we look forward to seeing the network grow.”

The non-exhaustive list of those companies already signed up to support WYN are BE., Carbon Funding Consultants, City Calling | Munnelly Group, EMW Law LLP, Evolve Hospitality, Fair Process, Metro Bank, MET Limited, M. K. Ginder & Sons, NBM Technology, Nimbus Hosting, Premier League Charitable Fund, Prohal Chartered Certified Accountants, Taylor Made PA, The Burns Unit tlc, UCFB GIS, Watford Museum and Watford Observer.