What barriers affect young people gaining employment?

bristol_pilot

Barriers to young people gaining employment? Here are my top 3:

• Dearth of available jobs, large number of potential applicants - which affects all ages;
• Lack of experience of doing the job - up against older people with a proven track record but still 'fairly young';
• Lack of experience of business in general / what employers are looking for / interview skills.

There is nothing a young person can do about the first one. The second one can partly be mitigated by 'volunteering' etc, although there is no substitute for experience of paid work. The third point can usefully be addressed by training.

Person_one

SarEl wrote: »

But even before the recession, I had noticed that every other young person had a degree from somewhere - like a third class in media studies from the Bognor Regis University. Now media studies might be a really useful qualification for someone seeking employment in a media field (I have no idea really!) - but it seems to me that there are simply too many "non-degrees" from too many, frankly (ok - I am going to get hammered for saying this I know) fourth rate "universities".

Not getting at you personally SarEl, but it really bugs me that pretty much everyone in the country consumes media products in some way (TV, Internet, film, newspapers, radio etc) but hardly anyone acknowledges that the study of it is worthwhile. We expect very high standards from people working in media but we pour scorn on them while they learn their skills.

As for 'fourth rate' universities by which I assume you mean the newer polytechnics and colleges that now offer HE, a lot of them have been instrumental in widening participation and allowing poorer, disadvantaged or older students with responsibilities and dependents the opportunity to study. HE in the UK is going through a transitional stage right now and yes there probably are too many graduates. However the previous system where uni was just for the privileged few was not adequate either. My hope is that things will settle down to a state where university is available to, but not selected by or suitable for, everybody.

purplerose

dugdale wrote: »

I'm an 18 - 24 adviser at Jobcentre Plus and see customers with many challenges (not allowed to call them barriers) to securing or retaining employment every day.
In no particular order
* Unrealistic job goals,
* No knowledge of the types of vacancies in the local labour market,
* No knowledge of the qualifications / experience required to enter a particular occupation,
* No knowledge of how to job seek,
* No knowledge of the recruitment process,
* No CV, or if they have a CV one which does not sell them to an employer,
* Unable to sell themselves at an interview,
* Reliant on public transport,
* No family work history therefore content to remain on benefits,
* No self confidence, believe that they will never find work so do not actively job seek,
* Lack of basic literacy / numeracy / conversational skills,
* No self discipline, staying up all night playing computer games therefore being dismissed for poor work attendance.

HTH

This pretty much says it all.
To add to the family having no work history, I'd say their peer group is a barrier too. If friends aren't working then what's the point in them working? - it makes them different from friends/unable to do things that the rest of their friends do such as staying up all night on a week night.

Another one I've found is territorial issues between gang members/people who live in particular areas - a young person might not want to work within a particular area as they are likely to be attacked or provoked by a rival gang.

The area they live in can be a barrier too if there are no jobs in that area. A lot of people will baulk at the suggestion of going further afield.

bristol_pilot

Under the previous system, uni was not for the 'privileged' few, in the sense of being for the rich and influential. It was for those who had the intellectual potential to benefit from higher education, regardless of background. This is not 'privilege'. Many people from poorer backgrounds like myself were able to go to university as there were no fees and student grants were available. Under the current system, I doubt that with my background - parents poor-ish but not poor enough for me to qualify for any state help - I would actually be prepared to take on the level of debt that students do today. So after a decade of a supposedly socialist government, higher eductaion really is for those who can afford it - well done NuLabour.

bristol_pilot

One should also add that having lots of kids and living on benefits is now a rational career choice for a young woman. Some people just can't afford to work.

Oldernotwiser

millsymuttleylaugh wrote: »

I don't think I know it all, if I did know it all I'd be in a better position than I am now.

And I was told the training would be vocational, not something like confidence building (which I agree would help me) another qualification in something unrelated is not going to help me get a job anymore so than the qualifications I already have, which believe me, they cover a broad spectrum.

I have no problem accepting advice. I'm a very open minded person. I put this post on here to help the OP not to be criticised and classed as a know it all just because I feel going for some vocational training won't help me.

I have already apologised for being rather brusque in my reply this morning and I am happy to do so again.

However, you are actually still insisting that you know better than both JCP and Connexions, whose job it is to help someone in your situation. That doesn't make you a know it all but it does mean that you feel that you know more than the professionals, which is a bit silly when your way is obviously not working.

A levels on their own are rarely a qualification for anything anymore and most people would normally follow them with university level or vocational training. Why are you so averse to training for a particular job/career?

Zazen999

The barrier that mostly affects young people gaining employment is the lack of offers of employment; or the lack of TAKE UP of offers of employment.

So the question should really be; What is stopping employers from offering jobs to young people? Bearing in mind the recession and employers wanting to trim down costs; and young people being significantly cheaper - why aren't they offering them jobs?

I'll start with 4 [from an employer's perspective]:
Badly written or inappropriate CVs that do not make it through first sift
Inability to follow the instructions
speeling and punktuation [see what I did there?]
Not preparing for or attending interview

HO87

This is intended as an employer's view of barriers to new-starters so I'll try to avoid anything too contentious.

1. Experience. In this "even leaner and meaner" environment new starters have to be able to hit the ground running or at least at a good pace. Whilst training/mentoring is provided those who come with some experience of the workplace tend to cope better and, from the company's perspective, become productive quicker.

As far as ignorance of recruitment processes is concerned is this something we can blame them for?

2. Literacy/Numeracy. Continuing with the same theme starters must have what I've heard described as a basic set of "business-oriented skills". Actually, they aren't business skills they're life skills such as numeracy, comprehension and an ability to express themselves verbally and in writing. Having to set time aside for managers to provide what actually amount to English lessons so that a new starter can, for example, understand punctuation and sentence construction is not something a small business can afford on anything other than a temporary basis.

3. Work Ethic. I remain somewhat undecided on this topic because I continue to try to bend my head around the issue of staff seemingly unable to carry out single tasks who miraculously become imbued with the ability to multi-task when asked to analyse some documents and draft a summary whilst simultaneously monitoring and responding to posts on their Facebook page. Save to say I believe that the "younger generation" do have a work ethic. It just differs from that we have but it is nevertheless the cause of some conflict between older and younger staff and that is where my indecision comes from.

Coupled with this is their work-life balance. Again it differs significantly from my generation's where everything is effectively compartmentalised. You know, when at work you work and everything else has to wait until later. The current generation of new-starters do not seem to have any real compartmentalisation and move seamlessly into and out of one roughly drawn area into another and exist in a state where overlaps are an everyday occurrence. I don't actually see this as being negative and am secretly (well, not now) rather envious in some respects. I remain unsure about focus and concentration.

Overall, the general lack of skills cannot realistically be regarded as a reflection on the young starters themselves but of the education system they are the products of. The schooling system they have come out of was designed to produce staff for a booming economy where jobs would abound and most would enjoy a respectable salary - capable or only vaguely so. Then came the Credit Crunch - and that was certainly not the fault of our education system.

However, at the risk of provoking the rabid howls of those who work within our schools the fact remains that few teachers have any experience outside the cloisters of our educational establishments. Most progressed through school themselves; into sixth form; onto University before going to Teacher training and, finally, back into school. Quite how we can expect them to pass on a business ethic they themselves are unlikely to have any experience of defeats me.

For several year I assisted in a scheme to provide school-leavers with what was sold (by the schools to their pupils) as real job interviews with local business people. This was a process run over several weeks including them applying for a specific (though fictional) job, submitting cv's and completing application forms and then attending an interview (at the businesses not at school). Things went very well for some while and the feedback from the interviewees themselves was that they truly valued what they went through. However, there was a change in heads at one of the contributing schools who wanted to vet the questions asked - in particular she wanted the question "Why do you think you should be given the job?" (and its variants) struck from the script on the basis that it was too challenging. Need I say more?

Couple this with a letter produced by a Year-head at a comprehensive school that contained no fewer than 13 spelling mistakes, was comprised of a single, 18-line paragraph with three subjects, no commas and only 2 full-stops and it is little wonder why some pupils leave school completely ill-equipped for the world of employment and, I might add, for the world of academe either.

tanith

From my grandsons journey in the jobless world for the last 18mths its experience , experience, experience.. difficult to overcome but he is getting there slowly by volunteering etc

Indie_Kid

My main problem is experience. Yes, I have a-level standard qualifications in IT; but I have no experience at all.