To not know how to help dd16 make friends

[WaffleDogg20]

Looking for some advice.

I have a 16 year old daughter who is feeling so lonely since leaving school and she doesn’t really have any friends.

I have no idea how to help her make friends.

She has a pony and loves riding, she’s mature for her age and is doing a childcare apprenticeship.

Any advice please?

iv mentioned joining pony club etc but she’s not keen. There isn’t really anyone at the yard she can ride with :(

Get a part time job.

How do you know she's lonely?

When you say she doesn't really have any friends...can you encourage her to be in more contact with her old friends?

How many people is she on contact with at her apprenticeship?

She’s been crying this evening.

she works 8am - 5pm every day. She has a job.

it’s mostly older women and she’s the only apprentice at the nursery.

Can she meet some of her friends from school ?

she didnt have that many friends at school tbh. Maybe a handful and they wasn’t that close. They have started college so I think finding time to do stuff is hard :(

Oh poor thing. Are there any clubs or hobbies she can persue at the weekend? It's so much easier to socialise when you have a shared interest to focus on.

Can she try meetup.com? There might be some things she can do in the local area. Any interests or hobbies? Sports? Evening classes? Hiking group?

Oh, poor thing! That such a horrible feeling.

Does she have any friends with horses?or could she join a local Facebook group to meet up with other riders? (If she enjoys a hack).

Could she leave the apprenticeship and go to an agricultural college- if you have one nearby - to do animal / equestrian stuff. She'd be more likely to meet people her own age there. She could always go back to do her apprenticeship later on. I think she needs to be with people her own age for a few more years.

No, she absolutely loves it and it’s a stepping stone to go to university that she has her heart set on :(

She’s got two options - make a big effort with her old friends, or try to make new ones through extra curricular activities. Explorer Scouts can be a good one for outdoorsy kids?

Honestly it can be really hard when teens get. Job, whether part time or full time,

Unless it's the kind of job where there are lots of teens (bar work, mc Donald's) then most of the people are older and she will feel like a fish out of water.

My DS had a part time job at a leisure centre when he was 16 and he hated it and left quickly for exactly this reason.

She's now in a situation where previously she was surrounded by her peers all day and now she probably feels like it's all teachers and people much older than her.

Any way she can get access to people her age?

You can't help a near-adult to make friends. She needs to do her own leg work. She is not keen on joining a pony club so she is making an conscious decision to avoid environments where she can make friends. That would suggest she has other issues going on which span beyond finding a hobby group (like social anxiety, for instance).
She is going to uni so will have plenty of opportunities there but she needs to get to the core of her barriers for making friends/attending social events or she will feel similarly lonely there.
And there is no reason why she can't make friends with older women in work. I found older people much less intimidating than my peers and had loads of adult friends at her age. I am autistic so this her mileage may vary.