A Nasty Predicament,
or Easily Solvable Equation?
By Kirith Ahluwalia
Many top news stories today focus on rising unemployment
rates – specifically among the young 16-25 year old age range. But is this an
issue that is a cause of youngsters with a definitive lack of experience, or is
it simply that employers are asking for too much experience nowadays?
Employers constantly complain that young people do not have
the skills or sufficient experience required to do the job properly, making
them too expensive to hire as they then have to be properly trained by the
company. While this is a viable argument, in other cases, employers might just
be asking for too much.
Let’s think about this rationally, shall we? For 16 year
olds who have just finished school, decide not to go to university but rather
decide that they’d like to go into the retail industry and work their way up, sufficient
experience in work is substantially a myth. Apart from the one-two weeks’ work
experience some children undertake as part of the school education, these 16
year olds will not have gained any other experience from anywhere else. It’s
impossible. Especially when you factor into the equation the fact that the
national legal working age is indeed 16. Since Employers are really the only
ones who can offer actual experience of a true working environment, surely they
should understand that 16 year olds would have just gotten their National
Insurance numbers, therefore meaning that they have only just gotten the opportunity
to gain work experience. However, rather than encouraging young people to apply
and try and gain experience, they offer roles demanding a minimum of one to two
years’ experience in the field. Where would these 16 year olds have gotten that
from?
Due to being unable to gain work and build up that one to
two years’ worth of experience, the 20-25 year olds are also suffering from the
unemployment epidemic. When employers are not offering forms of work
experience, these 20-25 year olds and graduates will obviously be out of work.
Instead of offering sufficient forms of training and experience, employers and
The Work Foundation itself are pointing fingers at schools and the education
system who should be focusing on trying to train these children for work. Surely
our schools are doing enough? If not schools then at least universities are?
Courses with sandwich placements and internship opportunities are available at
most universities. At least schools have a work experience programme in place,
the only other solution I can think of is that perhaps schools could extend
those work experience placements. But would that be enough, and how much can
schools extend this by? Certainly not by a year or two, what would happen to
the future of education? We’d have a country of youngsters trained in the art
of work but lacking the common sense and basic knowledge required for efficient
work. Would it be a better work force without the education to support it?
Rhian Jones from the Private Equity Foundation effectively
summed up the long term issue for young people in his report: “They will be
less employable. They won’t have the skills that business needs...” and
therefore they won’t gain employment. Once rejected from Employees, many of us
don’t get second chances: “If at first you don’t succeed, you don’t succeed.”
For more on this issue, read Rhian Jones' full report: http://www.theworkfoundation.com/blog/755/If-at-first-you-dont-succeed-you-dont-succeed
