Young people are now experiencing the struggle of living without work. Youth unemployment is worse than ever, according to statistics, even through constantly applying online and in-store. Due to the current economy, many have been made redundant, cutting out potential opportunities and leaving plenty without jobs, the main victims of this being young people. It has been said that the UK Government is creating a ‘jobless generation’. Adding to the severity of the situation, young people are not getting training, or an education to support them in the process due to the fact the educational system has failed to serve them in this area.
According to Youth Unemployment statistics posted on the Parliament Commons Library Standard notes, *“In September-November 2013, 920,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed, down 39,000 on both the previous quarter and the previous year”. Not only do they have nothing to do on a daily basis, but it does not allow any form income.
Why are young people failing to find work? Because they are the weakest equipped in todays job market. Employers have told that the educational system failed to teach people the right skills required, and has therefore failed to serve them business-wise. Jobs require experience, which often requires education, this requires money, but if you have no money, the rest is difficult to conquer. The system is designed to fail. Graduates are taught skills, but not the ones required by employers.
From my own personal experience, during my university years, I did voluntary internships in order to gain experience and strengthen my CV so that the search after graduation jobs would be made easier. This was not the case. Having then graduated, I struggled for months to find a job, even with a degree and plenty of work experience. It was shocking to hear that plenty more people I went to university with were also in the same position, struggling to even get into retail, which requires no qualifications, whilst the rest had been made redundant.
Some are even considering immigrating to other countries, where they know no one, in order to find any possible opportunity for making money, proving that young people want to, but they haven’t been giving the chance to do so. Its not a shock to find that its been highlighted that the youth (aged 16-24) are at higher risk of depression, insomnia as well as going to the extreme lengths of attempting suicide, due to the fact they struggle to find work. If this isn’t enough for the government to want to bring about change, then what is?
Even though plenty of graduate scheme programs attempt to promise graduates that their degree will help with their job search after they graduate, it does not guarantee results. In fact, its been proved that graduates either end up stuck in non-graduate jobs or remain unemployed altogether.
Reasons why young people may find it difficult to get employed could possibly include the financial crisis, hence less recruitment, but also lack of qualifications and experience ensures they recruit more experienced older staff. But how are they supposed to gain experience, if no one wants to hire inexperienced young people?
The job application process is irritating in itself, but the fact that most people tend to hire people they have personal links with, makes it difficult for anyone to get into work fairly. Young people tend to struggle most because of representation and stereotypes. Nowadays it’s more about whom you know, rather than what you know, devaluing a degree.
Whilst most have no shame in admitting they get benefits by the job center, others are forced to resort to other forms of money-making activities in order to survive and live comfortably. This could potentially lead to crime rate statistics also rising, hence why it needs to be tackled before this increases. Over 315,000 people between the ages of 18-24 are claiming jobseekers, yet the government fails to understand why this is the case and how to reduce these numbers by providing young people with opportunities for work.
It is important that it is made aware to UK government that it is a growing issue, and take it more seriously, because our futures are at stake here. If statistics stay the same, it will only have negative repercussions. The statistics do not lie and young people (graduates or otherwise) need and most importantly, want to work. The crisis seems as though it will not improve anytime soon, but it will cost the government to pay out billions in benefits. Which brings to question, would it not make more sense to give youth opportunities for them to work, rather than motivating them to scrape money from the government instead of earning it for themselves?
References:
* http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/SN05871/youth-unemployment-statistics
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
