What you’ll be doing depends on your course or interests, but the work is always practical and hands-on. Projects can range from constructing benches and painting murals to creating shop signage or contributing to the redesign of underused buildings.

Each placement is built around a real brief and practical tasks, with support throughout the week and a clear outcome at the end — so you can see what you’ve helped deliver and talk about it confidently.

Our placements are for young people aged 16–25 who live or study in the London Borough of Croydon. They are open to a wide range of backgrounds, courses and career interests.

We especially want to hear from young people who care about making Croydon a better place but have found it hard to access meaningful work experience so far. You don’t need prior experience, contacts or a polished CV — what matters most is an interest in taking part, learning new skills and contributing to something real.

Most placements run for one full week (35 hours) and are designed to align with timetabled work-experience weeks at local colleges and sixth forms. This allows participants to take part without missing classes or disrupting their studies.

In some cases, placements run one day per week over five weeks instead. This approach is used where it better fits a student’s course or study pattern, while still allowing them to work on a single project from start to finish. The structure of each placement is made clear in advance, with no expectation of ongoing commitment beyond the agreed period.

By the end of the placement, you will have worked on a real project with a clear outcome, giving you experience you can confidently talk about on your CV and in interviews. Because the work is practical and time-limited, you leave with something specific to point to — not just a line on a page.

Successfully completed placements are micro-accredited with a digital Open Badge that recognises the skills you’ve demonstrated. These badges are linked to the European Union’s ESCO framework, meaning your experience is described in a way employers and educators can clearly understand. Participants also receive a reference and, where possible, introductions to relevant local organisations to support next steps in work or study.

We are a small, not-for-profit organisation, and at this stage placements are not paid. Our focus is on delivering short, well-structured opportunities that are properly supported and worthwhile, rather than informal or poorly defined work experience.

As the organisation grows and funding allows, our intention is to move towards paid placements wherever possible. We are open about this ambition and are actively working towards it as part of scaling the programme responsibly.

In some cases, specific outputs may be paid separately. For example, where work leads to merchandise, creative outputs or other income-generating activity, participants may receive residuals or royalties linked to sales. Participants who perform particularly well may also be invited to become members of Revive Croydon CIC, giving them a formal stake in the organisation, including the right to vote at the AGM and remain involved in its future direction.

If you’re interested in taking part, the first step is to register your interest. This isn’t a formal application and doesn’t commit you to anything — it simply lets us know a bit about you and how to contact you when suitable placements are coming up.

We’ll get in touch with more information about upcoming opportunities, timings and what’s involved, and you can decide from there whether it’s right for you.