Gissa Job : Assisting Young People Into Work

An Assembly committee has investigated the barriers facing young people as they enter the
world of work, as well as assessing Welsh Government actions to reduce youth unemployment.
(Pic : The Guardian)

Another tome, I'm afraid. All part of the service.

Last week, the Enterprise & Business Committee published their report into how young people find  work (pdf). This is particularly important as quoted statistics underline how hard young people have been hit by the recession - up to 18% of 18-24 year olds were unemployed in 2014 compared to just 4.4% of 35-49 year olds.

The disappointing aspect is that BBC Wales and the Western Mail (until Sion Barry's piece yesterday) decided to focus on click-bait crap about the use of "text speak" in job applications, which does the Committee's work a disservice.

The Committee made 16 recommendations, summarised as :

• The Welsh Government should strengthen the teaching of "work-ready" skills and undertake a review of work experience – including considering making it longer and ensuring more involvement from employers.
• The Welsh Government should ensure pupils have information about vocational courses and should analyse the balance between pupils taking work-based and academic courses at post-16 level.
• Consideration should be given to extending concessionary transport fares for 16 and 17 year olds to 18-24 year olds.
• The Welsh Government should work with the Department for Work & Pensions to address "anomalies" such as housing benefit cuts as a result of taking up low-paid employment.
• Greater one-to-one support for young jobseekers, including face-to-face meetings with Careers Wales officials for anyone who wants such a meeting, more pre-entry training and more information on apprenticeships.

Barriers Facing Young People

Personal and skill issues are cited as the main barriers
preventing young people from finding work.
(Pic : Wiseman & Associates)

The abridged list is :

• Lack of confidence.
• Lack of "work-ready" and essential skills.
• Difficulties navigating the job market.
• Lack of experience.
• Poor work experience opportunities.
• Work-based education is held in poor esteem.
• Transport.

Careers Wales believes "personal issues" – like lack of confidence – are the biggest barriers, while Swansea Council said underachievers in school go on to experience anxiety or self-esteem issues when it comes to finding a job. Although there's plenty of research surrounding those not in education, employment or training ("NEETs"), theres little research on young people's expectations of the workplace.

Working Links said 50% of the people they work with have essential skills issues (reading, writing, basic maths). Others believe there's a distinct lack of "soft skills" amongst young people, like reliability, punctuality and knowing how to behave.

A survey was undertaken by the Assembly's Outreach Team on what skills pupils would like to be taught, but currently aren't. The results are below.

Click to enlarge
(Pic : National Sssembly)

Financial education & life skills were by far and away the most popular suggestion, followed by modern business languages and politics. Deputy Minister for Skills, Julie James (Lab, Swansea West), was aware of these issues and pointed to the Donaldson Review (Detention for Donaldson?). Teachers, however, said the introduction of new "robust" GCSEs in maths, English and Welsh has led to reduced teaching time for other subjects.

Witnesses believe young people don't know how to find a job, with the Children's Commissioner saying companies don't exclusively recruit via the internet. This problem is worse in areas with pre-existing employment problems; the Joseph Rowntree Foundation saying applicants there have to submit twice as many applications to get the same number of positive responses as applicants from areas with a stronger labour market.

Some young people who've shown to be otherwise capable submit poor CVs and applications (including the use of text speak and poor punctuation). They may also overestimate the cost of finding a job and fall into a "benefits trap", thinking they'll be better off on welfare.

Lack of experience is described as "the employability catch-22" : you can't get a job without prior experience, but without a job you can't get experience in the first place. Some young people said employers had unrealistic expectations of the levels of experience young people could expect to have, while from the other end, employers were cautious about taking on young people with behavioural or skills issues, as it's often expensive to train them and rarely works out.

There was criticism of how work experience is handled, with only a quarter of Welsh employers offering placements for school-aged children; this is despite the Children's Commissioner saying good work experience was a "core component" to ensuring young people were ready for work. Swansea Council argued that work experience should be run similarly to work-based training, where instead of it lasting for a single week, it lasts for one day a week for 30 weeks across Year 10.

It's believed certain jobs "lacked respect" with vocational training looked down upon. Young people should be told that vocational courses are as valuable as academic ones, with manual work leading to good careers. There needed to be greater parity between academic and work-based training as there was a feeling apprenticeships were undervalued - even though it was claimed to be "20 times cheaper to put someone through an apprenticeship than a degree".

Also, public transport might not meet the needs of employers. Many young people, especially in rural or isolated areas – cross-valley transport and west Wales were picked out - may not be able to access transport to get them to work. A scooter scheme operates in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion where young people can lend a scooter to get to work for up to 12 months. Other witnesses pointed to London's Oyster Card, which offers free travel up to age 19 if the person in full-time education. Job Centre Plus gives vouchers to the young unemployed, but bus drivers don't know what they are, causing embarrassment and resulting in ticket purchases anyway.

Additional Barriers Facing Vulnerable Youngsters

The Disabled

People with physical and learning difficulties already face major
challenges finding work, and being young is no real advantage.
(Pic : Houston Chronicle)

Disabled people in general face problems when trying to find work, and these have no less impact on the young – whether they're physically disabled or have a learning disability. RNIB quote figures which say 90% of employers believe the blind are difficult to employ, while Action Hearing Loss said the deaf are four times more likely to be unemployed than the general population.

Basic things like online-only recruitment will exacerbate problems for people with sight problems, for example. Many disabled young people are reliant on public transport, for obvious reasons, which is itself a limiting factor (as explained earlier). Young people with learning disabilities said they really needed a mentor, but were treated with a lack of respect by job centre and recruitment staff, while Vale of Glamorgan Council called for the welfare system to allow disabled youngsters to work without penalising them financially.

Children leaving care

These children are said to require a "unique set of interventions" to enable them to live independent lives due to a lack of family support. Unfortunately, they often have poor employment prospects as they tend to come from disadvantaged backgrounds and endure all the negative educational outcomes associated with that (AMs demand action to close education gap). Therefore, there's a need to ensure these children get a good education and are encouraged into further and higher education at much higher rates than present.

The Homeless & "Hard to Reach"

Although hostels - like Bridgend's Ty Ogwr (above) - provide much needed security for
the homeless, employers are reluctant to take on potential workers who live in them.
(Pic : Hendre Housing)

This is partly-associated with children leaving care, who have a "compressed and accelerated transition to adulthood". This means they need secure accommodation from day one. Also, homelessness trebles the risk of developing a mental illness.

The use of hostel addresses as a home address for work reasons is cited as a "major barrier" in applying for jobs, which traps people where they are. Barnardo's Cymru gave an example of a woman who successfully obtained catering qualifications and a job in a pub kitchen, but immediately had to give it up as she lost her tenancy due to housing benefit cuts.

It's said the Third Sector can play a key role amongst "hard to reach" young people by offering things like job-tasters and reimbursements for travel costs – even cajoling young people to get to work on time.

NEETs

Although witnesses said the Welsh Government's intent to help people not in employment, education or training is clearly there, they were unsure if the various schemes and programmes were working on the ground. They're well placed to reach 16-18 year olds because they've only just left the education system and data sharing was better, as it's likely to be schools/careers data (devolved) not unemployment (DWP – non-devolved). They're completely failing to reach 19-24 year olds.

Many of the people who become NEETs have been "disengaged from education at a young age", so witnesses called for issues which lead to 12-15 year olds becoming NEETs as they get older to be worked on within schools.

Careers Advice & Employer Engagement

(Pic : getmerthyronline.org.uk)

There were mixed views on careers guidance. Some witnesses said schools careers officers didn't have enough training on the wide range of options now available. Others were more impressed by the personal touch of having someone to talk to. A Funky Dragon survey said 72% of young people aren't even aware of where to get careers advice.

Careers Wales are currently undertaking a "massive" online project to create online prospectuses and applications for 16-18 year olds. They say that despite their best efforts, there's still a lack of information on all of the paths available to young people, believing tailored job search support has the biggest impact on employment success, where they work on specific weaknesses instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.

The Deputy Minister said Careers Wales has "taken a significant budget hit" as a result of its absorption into the Welsh Government. One-to-one meetings for the most needy and NEET services have been protected, but - as hinted – most of their services will now shift online, despite young people saying they would prefer face-to-face advice. Also, Careers Wales say budget cuts will impact services they provide to adults.

Colegau Cymru said they're disappointed they don't reach pupils in schools which have sixth-forms, meaning these pupils often don't get enough information about vocational courses and apprenticeships (presumably because they're being pushed towards universities).

Young Enterprise said "meaningful employment experiences in the classroom" could make the transition from education to work smoother, while some schools said they had built up a good relationship with local employers – up to and including having them as school governors. The Deputy Minister said improved employer-school/college relations – even reaching Year 7s (11 year-olds) - is something the Welsh Government are actively working towards.

Welsh Government Programmes

The Committee said while the number of schemes were welcome, it often caused confusion and duplication.

• Jobs Growth Wales (Does Jobs Growth work for Wales?) - There was broad praise for the scheme, but some witnesses suggested the 6-month placements it offers should be extended to one year. Vale of Glamorgan Council criticised the decision to exclude Work Programme participants from the scheme. Young witnesses gave a mixed response, with a story of being let go at the end of their placement, only for the placement vacancy to be re-advertised afterwards.
• Traineeships – These are work-based programmes for 16-18 year olds NEETs, but participants aren't counted as employed. However, Barnardo's said many of the people they work with are so far away in terms of skills and employability they would have to work incredibly hard to get close to being prepared for a traineeship. The Committee did commend the Welsh Government for protecting the budget for traineeships.
• Apprenticeships – Only 15% of employers currently offer apprenticeships despite witnesses saying they were valuable. There's also confusion over access and funding. Coelgau Cymru said part-time and full-time college courses might be more appropriate than an apprenticeship in some cases. The Children's Commissioner raised concerns about reductions in funding, while Chwarae Teg wanted to ensure apprenticeships didn't entrench gender stereotypes.
• Youth Entrepreneurship (Tomorrow's Enterprise) – There is a great deal of interest amongst young people in entrepreneurship, some of the highest in the UK, but some young witnesses had received little advice. The Children's Commissioner praised the Welsh Government's Young Entrepreneurship Strategy, but said entrepreneurship needs to be addressed in the school curriculum.

There were concerns about gaps in coverage, in particular funding for over-18s. Colegau Cymru even questioned whether they'll be able to continue providing courses to 19-24 year olds due to cuts.

Conclusions

Solid recommendations, but the challenges remain strategic and
enormous in the face of the inevitability of another "lost generation".
(Pic : National Assembly of Wales via Flickr)

I wish I could say more because I have personal experience of some of the issues that popped up in the inquiry, mainly the "lack of experience" catch-22, but I'll keep it short.  It's also worth pointing out that this highlights the Third Sector's value and good side after the nonsense over the last few weeks.

I don't think older generations, especially those born in the 1940s and 1950s, realise how easy they had it in the post-war economy. Their equivalent of today's NEETs would've once walked out of a secondary modern school with few, if any, formal qualifications and into semi-skilled manual work in the heavy industries or at a branch factory. If they were really lucky they might get a job with the local council and work their way up. Those days are over.

Even for those with formal qualifications, under-35s have been given a terrible ride over the last 15 years – exemplified by the response to this report in the media. There's an assumption that young people are more "flexible" and should therefore put up with whatever brain farts those in power come up with, and somehow be grateful for zero-hour contracts and unpaid internships. Of course, young people are often easier to push around because they lack political clout.

It's fair to say the Welsh Government have made some moves to ease youth unemployment - with mixed results. It's also fair to say this is another set of largely common sense recommendations that should've  been enacted in the first place. It would certainly make sense, for example, to widen the scope and number of apprenticeships into growth sectors like life sciences, financial services and IT for those who either don't want, or can't afford, to go down the academic route.

Apprenticeships will have to lead to full-time employment too, otherwise there's no point. The whole "providing young people with reasonably paid, secure full-time jobs" thing is the bit both Welsh and UK governments are struggling with and have for years.

But, like everything in Wales these days, it's a question of where the money and leadership is going to come from.