NUMBER OF 16 TO 24-YEAR-OLDS NOT IN WORK IS NOW CLOSE TO A MILLION
New figures announced yesterday (12 October, ONS) showed that the number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work increased by 74,000 over the latest three months – to 991,000. This jump to close than a million is an astonishing increase of of 21%.
It’s clear that youth unemployment is a huge problem in the UK – and at Graduate Fog we know that is not just about numbers. It is about the lives, career aspirations and futures of hundreds of thousands of hard-working young people who are keen to crack on with their working lives, but are finding they can’t. It’s a complex problem – so what is the solution?
Employment minister Chris Grayling has announced a mix of training, work experience and a guaranteed interview to tens of thousands of unemployed people over the next two years, targeted at the under-25s. But will it be enough? As we have seen from the campaign to make all internships paid, all the training in the world is no good if there are no paid jobs at the end of it.
Should the Government do more to encourage businesses to hire young people, by offering tax breaks, for example? Should big companies that can afford to take on young people be forced to do so? Should unpaid internships be banned, so that companies are made to offer paid jobs to the young staff they are using? Should universities be pressured to offer better careers and job-hunting advice to their students and graduates?
What do you feel are the biggest barriers stopping young people getting into work? This is a serious situation – and the Government seems to have few ideas about how to help. So any brainwaves you have will be very welcome…
It’s largely the fault of the economy. During a recession youth unemployment tends to rise more quickly than amongst older groups but also tends to fall more quickly with economic growth. Graduates are well placed to take advantage of new job opportunities as they are typically skilled, flexible around the type of work they will do and have lower salary expectations than older workers. However economic growth has slow to date and recruitment of young people, although it has started to pick up, remains well below pre-recession levels .
So what can be done to address youth unemployment is (a) pursue a policy of macro-economic growth (b) ensure that graduates/young people are job-ready when jobs do come up – the education system, work experience and internships all have a role to play here(c) challenge negative perceptions of young people amongst employers – again this is about work experience and internships but also about the way the media portrays young people.
“Should the Government do more to encourage businesses to hire young people, by offering tax breaks, for example?”
Absolutely Not : Employers are given sufficient tax breaks at the moment in the sense that if a candidate goes to College or University, then they are unlikely to receive sponsorship, more than likely will consumer services subsidised by the Government through the taxpayer, and more than likely will need a Student Loan (again subsidised by the taxpayer).
And what does an employer contribute ? Frankly, not a lot if anything.
However, even when the economic times were good, there was not a great deal of involvement by employers – they weren’t compelled to provide any sponsorship, let alone placements, and neither Labour nor Conservative Governments made it mandatory for those employers who did nothing to pay anything to the system – such as a Training Levy.
I tell a lie…. there was a greater deal of hot air coming from employers, condemning Colleges and Universities for failing to provide training which employers wanted, condemned graduates for failing to come up to scratch, and more likely than not, condemning all and sundry for the Skills Shortages and Deficits which employers allegedly experienced.
So, by all means give an employer a massive tax break – if they contribute to training, they would be levied, But, if they dont do anything, levy them the cost of a 3-4 year University Programme at the rate of (say) £50K per 50 employees per year.
Employers should read this…
THREE CRITICAL CONSULTATIONS ON THE ISSUE OF YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT ADDRESSING THE ABSENCE OF EMPLOYERABILITY SKILLS.
1. The issue of youth unemployment actually involves young people.
When I read about how those in the business community aren’t getting the people they need . I do feel the barriers faced by the young unemployed often ignore the most important stakeholder in this, the young unemployed. A strategy to create jobs that fails to acknowledge the nature of this stakeholder is instantly doomed to fail. All stakeholders from schools to employers, from government to non-gov specialists must engage with the young employed.
Schools and Universities have career services while business and community groups have human resources and other staff who examine candidates. It is up to these stake holders to rediscover the nature of youth in a new economic environment, to see what now can drive it and what potential is on show. If young people have the wrong attitude, find out why, don’t jump to assumptions. Whatever bad experience you’ve had in employing young people before should inform not deter you on developing a new talent.
2. If you are doing without, look within.
For a business to demand a university course to follow its need or for universities to demand businesses work from their example is a highly inflexible partnership that only hurts the supply of workers as well as sponsorships and research work. A university, training, apprenticeship or school course is meant to generalise, a business is meant to specialise, they will always be out of phase in this regard. Acknowledging the boundaries will present the oppertunities more clearly, what an outside party cannot deliver may be found elsewhere. Co-independence and pragmatic realism forms the backbone of any solid relationship, meddling too much may show over-dependence and ignore the strenghts of any partnership, and more importantly one’s own inner strenghts and experiences, perhaps in a different context or situation is all the innovation you need to do, but please respect what the other guy does … a physics lecturer isn’t going to take out condensed matter theory so he can teach Java or Mandarin instead. You are not entitled to a polymath with two years work experience in Australia.
3. There is always a massive skill shortage, when there is the slightest will shortage
Added to the vast young unemployed are experienced staff who lost jobs in both the public and private sector, this allows a buyers market for a range of talents across many disciplines and the potential. Like all business acquisitions there is a case for managing risk, the perfect candidate may not exist but the next best thing may surprise you with their capabilities. Some common sense is needed too, if two skills are needed and someone who specialises in skill A doesn’t have skill B, see if it is any easier to see if those with skill B are more likely to have skill A, and has or can easily develop skill A with a little mentorship or outside training, never obsess over one quality. An interview panellist could be a product to work on or a project to develop depending on how both parties are willing to go. After going through the trouble of shortlisting the right candidates from long list of applicants, don’t let nitpicking ruin all your hard work, people may be more employable if you are willing to let them do develop themselves to be so.
One barrier which the government seem hesitant to even address is prejudice against hiring young people. Students are hit particularly hard by this – yes, OK, there may be plenty of students who are unreliable and lazy, but how is it fair to tar everyone with the same brush? When I was at uni, I never called in sick to work or failed to work hard once I was there. If my job clashed with my lectures, I took it upon myself to sort it out instead of burdening my employer. I feel really sorry for students who are seeking part-time work at the moment – it must be nigh on impossible.
The main problem I face when applying for jobs is that even if I’m qualified and experienced enough to apply for a particular post, I will NEVER be experienced enough to actually get it – there will always be someone with more. I’m capable and hard-working, but I have a nasty sensation that what tips the balance in an employer’s decision every time is experience – which massively affects young people’s ability to get into work. Every time I’m rung up to be told that they were very impressed with me but went with someone who had more experience, I want to scream. Often I’m told I’m second choice, which is especially maddening. If experience is the only thing holding me back, then there’s literally nothing I can do about it! I’m already scraping together as much work as I can to get by, I’m also doing voluntary work, and I don’t have any more time in the week to do work for free, so I have very little chance of actually getting the experience required of me. I can’t magically add years of experience to my life!
It’s awful because instead of focusing their attention on convincing big business to be youth-positive, all they’re doing is encouraging companies to hire us for free!