Today’s young people are a ‘generation in crisis’, according to a recent report. And more and more of us are expressing concern over entering the job market.
Young Enterprise – the UK’s leading charity that empowers young people – surveyed 1,000 16 to 18-year-olds in full-time education and found that nearly half of us have a real issue with finding work, blaming international competition, recession and lack of experience as the main obstacles.
The report was put into place after concerns rose that academic success and a degree doesn’t always promise opportunity (tell me about it). It was also commissioned to examine the challenges the next generation faces when trying to get a job.
The findings show that half of students believe qualifications aren’t enough to secure a professional job, and 58 per cent of us believe that we will struggle to get a job because of lack of work experience – which I’m sure we can all relate to!
The team behind the research said that employers are expecting ‘too much of school leavers.’ The British Chambers of Commerce’s Workforce Survey found that 54 per cent of British companies believed graduates were not prepared for work, while 88 per cent said the same about school leavers, The Independent reports.
And if we’re not prepared for work after graduation, all we’re really left with is internships. But 16 per cent of the people surveyed said unpaid internships were only a feasible option for high-income families, and paid internships don’t often pay enough, either.
Young Enterprise said:
The UK’s youth unemployment rate of 13.6 per cent continues to lag behind comparable European economies. These figures are symptomatic of a wider inability to properly prepare Britain’s young people for skilled employment in the global world of work, and contribute to the UK’s poor productivity record.
While these findings may be a surprise to some, I’m not exactly 100 per cent shocked. If anything, let’s hope this survey prompts some action and a lower unemployment rate going forward.
