Employers should do more to prepare young people for work, says report

Written by Mary Isokariari on 11 October 2016 in News

News

Young people in the UK struggle to find work experience to help them on their future career paths, according to a new study.

if(typeof _gaq!='undefined')_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','Image','Impression','young people',1,true]);

Employers and educators need to help the next generations to develop practical skills and confidence from a younger age. Photo credit: Fotolia

Figures from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and EY Foundation released to mark Work Experience Week (10-14 October), found that 88 per cent of respondents did not feel employers offered opportunities for personal development.

A survey conducted by Populus of more than 1,500 young people aged 16 to 21-years-old in the UK, revealed only half of 16 to 18-year-olds said their school offered work experience, compared to 64 per cent of those now aged 19-21.

More News

One in three employees have experienced mental health issues, CIPD survey finds

Universities UK response to HEPI paper on mental health support

ILM and Maudsley Learning collaborate to improve mental health in the workplace

Only 2% of young people in UK take apprenticeships, says OECD

Ann Francke, chief executive of CMI, said: “Young people aspire to become leaders, but it’s currently luck of the draw whether they get the necessary chances to learn how. We need employers and educators to help the next generations to develop practical skills and confidence from a younger age.

“If we are to succeed in creating regional powerhouses outside London then we must have home-grown leaders. Making management and leadership skills part of the school curriculum will help bridge the gap between employers and the next generation of workers.”

The report also revealed a third of 16-21 year olds in the UK had no confidence in securing a job locally. However, young people from poorer backgrounds were most likely to suffer from a lack self-esteem.

Maryanne Matthews, chief executive of EY Foundation, said: “We want every young person in every region across the UK to have the same systematic and high-quality experiences of work with local employers. Greater levels of collaboration are needed to fix this.

"While we are hearing that many employers, schools and colleges across the country are doing great things and offering inspiring experiences of work, there are still too many young people who are not getting this access and they are calling for it!”

Share this page

if(typeof _gaq!='undefined')_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','Image','Impression','Printer-friendly version',1,true]);

Printer-friendly version

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM READERS

Please login to post a comment or register for a free account.

if(typeof _gaq!='undefined')_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','Image','Impression','Low polygonal hands, human and robot arms, partnership of people and robots, computer graphics',1,true]);

2019: The year of balancing tech with a human touch

10 January 2019

Is 2019 the year that humanity comes back to L&D and HR?

Need some help with your account?

Problems logging in? Need some help with your account? Your username and password are case sensitive. Contact our customer support team for more assistance.

Now add videos to your posts and comments

You can now add videos to your forum posts and comments. To use this new feature, take the embed code from a website such as YouTube or Vimeo, click on the Embed Media button in the TJ text editor toolbar and paste your embed code into the pop-up window, then click OK. You can type your comments above or below the video, which will be displayed once you save the post.