A groundbreaking digital social enterprise, OKO, is on a mission to encourage business leaders to provide every young person with a mentor and solve the youth crisis in the UK.

Every summer hundreds of thousands of young people put their years of formal education behind them and take the first steps into living their lives on their own terms. Too many of them will take these crucial steps without any support or guidance. Recent statistics show that 45% of university students fear stepping into the world of work (Prospects, 2021) and that half of students feel that mental health difficulties during university are set to have a prolonged impact on their lives (Humen 2022).

Dave Evans, Founder of OKO, says “We can’t rely on the government to solve the youth crisis, they have shown time and time again they are simply not capable. So it’s up to us, the business leaders, to step up. Take this opportunity to invest in your people. Develop their leadership skills through mentoring. Be part of the solution and benefit your business and society as a whole, so we can all flourish. Join us and make the pledge to provide every young person a mentor.”

OKO are leading the charge with pledges from some big hitters in the business community, including Sophie Devonshire, CEO of The Marketing Society; Laura Jordan Bambach, President and Chief Creative Officer at Grey London and Martin Smith MBE, Founder and Chairman of SASIG, who believe in the power of mentoring and the need to support our youth.

Sophie Devonshire says, “At The Marketing Society we believe mentoring is a brilliant way for business leaders and marketers to ‘give back’ to future generations. We know that mentoring can be hugely rewarding, a great opportunity to give something back whilst learning and developing your own skills.”

OKO is a social enterprise that links businesses with young people, leveraging mentoring as a development opportunity for a company’s employees. Their career-focused digital mentoring platform is centred on behavioural science. OKO matches ambitious young people (18-30) with business employees on their shared personality, bridging gender, race and geography. The bespoke OKO 6-step programme guides mentors to support their mentees through a discovery and action based approach, founded in the best coaching practice. The OKO Pledge is to provide every young person a mentor with the help of the business community.

Notes to Editor:
Dave Evans, OKO Founder, started from humble beginnings on a council estate changing tyres at 17. He went on to lead HighIQ Robotics, a Silicon Valley AI company, before founding OKO. An unlikely invested tech CEO, Dave’s journey is testament to the power of mentoring and proves that if you have the right support, dream big and work hard, anything is possible.