Job for life?

Job for life?

Can you remember your early experiences of work?

 

Work you got paid for and made you feel like "wow, so this is what employment can be like!" Our early experiences can  really shape our expectations for the future, can't they.

 
For some of us it was Bob-a-job week with Scouts.

I remember knocking on doors at age 12 with my older brother, sauntering through the village in our dark green scout shirts on hot May days. We would polish shoes and wash flowerpots for fifty pence - character building stuff! It was about serving folk in the community, being enterprising and making enough pennies to pay for our summer camp!


Perhaps it was work experience during school that provided a taster for you? In our mentoring work at Lifespace Trust, I recently spoke to a lad who worked at Shepperton Studios learning about film sets and animation. More glamorous than my two weeks in an Accountant's office in Guildford learning about Supercalc 5 and bank reconciliations. But I loved it. I went on to get a degree in Accountancy.

HORRIBLE HEADLINES

Recent reports by the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD) and Business In The Community (BITC) are giving us details about the horrible headline of youth unemployment in our country with 1 in 5 young people aged 16-24 out of paid work. It is wrong that it is like this. There is a significant mismatch between employers and young people, and the problem isn't just elsewhere, it is local to South Warwickshire too.

MORE THAN YOU THINK?

Don't just consider the drain on the welfare budget, more vitally we are talking about a whole generation who are learning about worklessness and worthlessness.

And as for the damage done to young people's mental health... Our job shouldn't define our worth but it does give us a context to discover it and demonstrate it. For all the TV talent shows which reinforce the celebrity culture we have enthroned, thousands of young people are having their more useful and worthy talents ignored. Of course, it's not just a question of talent, but of giving opportunities to learn and discover what they are capable of in a supported way.

One teenager who struggles with the impact of dyslexia in school is realising his hyper-visual brain (people with dyslexia think in pictures, not sounds) means he is amazing with repairing car engines. Spelling is a struggle but he's got his own X Factor!

CATCH 22

But here's the catch-22: What employers want is precisely what young people lack -  "Experience". In fact, too many employers want the "finished product". Businesses need to think about social investment not just financial profit, although there is also a business case for apprenticeships. Nine out of ten employers, nationally, that have apprentices are satisfied with them. We all have a responsibility to one another.

So, what are we doing?

 

With the brilliant support of Stratford Town Trust, we now have a part-time Employability Co-ordinator, whose task is to "close the gap between school and business, and between young people and enterprising adults, through mentoring".

• More chances for youth volunteering? We hope so.

• More openings for work experience and apprenticeships? Yes please.

• More paid work for young people? You bet.

Because when a million young people are being discarded at the start of their working lives, we have to start somewhere. Let's start local and let's start now.

For more information contact Kirsty at Lifespace Trust on 01789 297400 or info@lifespace.org.uk

Note:

 

If helping young people in employability matters to you, please consider making a donation. We are a small independent charity in South Warwickshire that relies on voluntary giving to continue. Please visit www.lifespace.org.uk and use our VirginMoneyGiving widget to make a secure and easy donation, or call and speak to Ros in the office.