A recent survey conducted by YouGov – on behalf of the HR body, CIPD – and based on responses received from 2,064 persons aged between 18 and 30 years, shows that 43 per cent of them believe that the Covid pandemic has harmed their career prospects.
Reasons for this could be that they lost their jobs; the industry they want to work in has fewer vacancies or home working has resulted in them missing development and networking opportunities.
The latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there were 166,000 fewer 16 to 24-year-olds in work in June 2021, compared with March 2020, when 3.9 million were employed. Despite that, it has also been reported that many employers are struggling with staff shortages, highlighting the need for more organisations to invest in young people in diverse ways to bolster their talent pipeline.
According to the survey, 50 per cent of young people currently not in work have been so for 12 months; 49 per cent of the unemployed are not confident about finding any work in the next three months and 72 per cent are not confident about finding a job in the next three months to meet their career ambitions and salary expectations.
The research also found that 14 per cent of unemployed young people have applied for more than thirty jobs in the past three months; 51 per cent of those not in work have not accessed any support services to help them look for work and 44 per cent of those not in work had attended university.
Lizzie Crowley - Senior Skills Adviser at the CIPD (the professional body for HR and people development) - said:
“While Brexit and much talk of staff shortages in recent months may give the impression that it should be easy for young people to walk into a job, they are still often left at the back of the queue because employers tend to favour experienced workers. We want to help young people get their career off to a flying start as unemployment at a young age can leave permanent scarring - and means they’re more likely to earn less over the course of their working lives and experience more spells of unemployment. More employers also need to take a chance on young people - and be prepared to train them up - given our labour supply is changing and staff shortages are becoming more prevalent. We also don’t want them to miss out on the creativity, ingenuity and energy young people can bring to an organisation.”
Employers are being encouraged to create jobs, internships, work experience and apprenticeships. Through a mentoring programme, the CIPD is offering jobseekers aged 18 – 24 years help with CV writing, job searching and interview technique. The mentors are all HR and recruitment professionals.
Kevin Gaughan - Director of resourcing, learning & development at Openreach - said:
“At Openreach, we believe passionately in giving young people a chance, so we’re proud that over the last three years we’ve recruited more than 7,800 new apprentices - providing them with world class training, ‘on the job’ experience and life-long NVQ qualifications. We’re now investing billions of pounds to build a new, ultrafast full fibre broadband network throughout the UK and we can’t do that without a great team. By focusing on hiring the right individuals with the right attitude, rather than minimum educational qualifications, we’re bringing even more young people into our field and office-based teams - and the results speak for themselves. It’s helping young people take their first steps into a great career and it’s helping us to build and enhance our brilliant team - so it’s a massive win-win.”
