What barriers affect young people gaining employment?

tanith

sh1305 wrote: »

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

Have you tried volunteering for a charity, they sometimes are very gratefull for IT help .... worth asking , or your local hospital , I know someone who volunteered at our hospital and after 3 mths of doing a few hours per week they offered him a post.. it wasn't what he wanted to do back then but now 10yrs on he is on of their top bosses..

flutterbyuk25

Wow thanks for all your responses!

I'm very grateful

x

SarEl

Person_one wrote: »

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.

See - I knew it would be a minefield Honest - I wasn't getting at media studies per se. I did say that I could see the point in the subject for people who wished to enter this field. Or aspired to. But it is offered at every fourth rate "university" in the country as far as I can see and loads of people do it because they can't think of anything else to do with two grade D's at A Level (which is what it takes to get into the course at one of my local universities - grades which in may days were considered "fails"!)

And I totally agree that universities should not be for the privileged (and also with the poster who pointed out that with loans and tuition fees etc, they are actually more so than they used to be). But I do not believe that widening the "franchise" and making it possible for everyone to be a graduate is the answer - in other words, more universities and more degrees don't do anything but make for graduates doing jobs they would previously have got with lesser qualifications. I came from a very poor background, and attended Oxford (on a scholarship and grant) in the mid 70's. So I know about poor and "privilege" - and a damn sight more about hard work. But you are missing the point. Yes, there were inequalities and those needed to be addressed. And I think that the former poly's did a great job of providing a new form of degree education which was better tailored to the "new world". But many of the new universities are not universities - nor are they poly's. They were, and remain, second rate and third rate colleges of HE trying to pretend to be universities. With thousands and thousands more graduates entering the job market every year, employers are simply ignoring those who have "worthless qualifications". A degree was never a passport to a better job - today it is even less so. That was the point I was trying to make - more graduates simply means more people with high qualifications chasing jobs that 30 or so years ago would have been the purview of people with fewer qualifications. Nobody in their right mind thinks that everyone going to university will solve the social ills and inequalities of the world. While the number of graduates has risen steadily, inequality has got worse. So it obviously isn't working!

onlyforboards_2

bristol_pilot wrote: »

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.

OP you weill need to be referencing NEET (not in employment education or training). There will be loads of stuff online to look at.

The period of university grants was relatively short. Short enough for someone to be smart enough to go to university but be the first in the family to be able to do so. This meant that there was very little understanding of University in working class areas and places still went to those people who had family connections or just basically knew more about the application procedure.

Sure it was much better than now, but it still wasn't perfect.

Also I keep seeing online about how Labour trashed the grant system, this just is not so. It was Thatcher who made the changes. No doubt the Government this time around will trash the NHS and if Labour get in again they will be hounded for that too.

Kaleidoscope27

I have struggled with two things since I started full time job hunting two years ago:

1. Under-experienced
2. Over-qualified

I'm 23.

millsymuttleylaugh

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

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?

I'm not insisting I know better than the Job centre, but Connexions I've had bad experiences with and they never helped me at all, they didn't take into account my personal circumstances and just tried to pack me back off to college.

I'm not against doing more training, I'd just rather work instead of doing more learning, I'd rather learn through the work

tsimehC

millsymuttleylaugh wrote: »

I'm not insisting I know better than the Job centre, but Connexions I've had bad experiences with and they never helped me at all, they didn't take into account my personal circumstances and just tried to pack me back off to college.

I'm not against doing more training, I'd just rather work instead of doing more learning, I'd rather learn through the work

Are you applying for Modern Apprenticeships then? I fully agree with what the 18-24 JCP adviser has listed and to add that (the postcode wars thing which someone else had mentioned as well). So in effect, I had nothing to add. :P

Unintentional

I would say it's how some young people approach applying for a job. Where I work we're getting a lot of young people coming in wearing some tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie on and say to me 'Alright mate, any jobs going here at the moment?' And when I say we're recruiting for christmas and ask for a CV I get the reply 'I ain't got a CV, Do you have any application forms?'

Not a lot of companies use Application forms anymore and to be honest I couldn't take the guy seriously because he looked like he was just casually asking for a job and the way he asked for it was poor too. You also get them coming in with either parents or friends and getting them to ask on their behalf, which looks even worse as it looks like you don't have to confidence to do things for yourself

I got my first job at 15 after work experience and kept it for 5 years before I needed a full time job after I left School and college and I didn't even think about using that approach.

What I did was write a good CV, Lucky for me my Dad helped me with this but there's so many websites that will help you write a eye catching one, then I put on a pair on formal trousers, a white shirt and a tie and went around places handing them out and asking if there were any job vacancies available and handed out several CV's, by the end of the week I had 3 companies contact me for interviews which I arrived 10 minutes early dressed nicely once again and answered all questions confidently and to the best of my ability.

All 3 companies offered me a job and I had to luxury of choosing which one would be better for me. Did I get lucky? Maybe. But I think this significantly helped me get a job.

tsimehC

Unintentional wrote: »

All 3 companies offered me a job and I had to luxury of choosing which one would be better for me. Did I get lucky? Maybe. But I think this significantly helped me get a job.

Been there, done that. It's not the same world anymore as you're sign posted to the employer's website or worse, they take the CV and you know that it'll be in the bin the moment you leave the place (confirmed with friends who do exactly that in places like Tescos; as in they work for those big chain employers). I don't deny that approaching small businesses may be worth doing this though.

One thing to add (being a JCP adviser), 1 out of 3 young people who are claiming JSA in my office always seem to be in trouble with the law. Either they've just come out of prison, waiting to go back to prison or are ex-offenders. There is support for these sort of people but the programmes run on for some time and by then, they're shafted onto "mandatory" programmes. Jobcentre aren't well-equipped for them and this makes privatising the Jobcentre not such a bad idea.

V_Chic_Chick

From my own experience (as an unemployed 18 yo)
- Not enough experience (do they think experienced employees appear magically out of thin air? It's catch 22)
- General lack of jobs
- Negative stereotypes of the young (as detailed by a previous poster)
- General assumption that as I have good A Levels I'm about to go to uni in September . . . they usually don't even bother to ask, and given the response of the couple that have asked, I'm about to start lying.

Edited to add:
- Being reliant on public transport - it's not like you can afford a car / driving lessons on JSA or the sort of wages that get paid to those just coming into employment, yet there are a lot of jobs out there that demand own transport.