Latest policy insights on youth employment from Youth Employment UK CEO Laura-Jane Rawlings MBE and Deputy CEO Lauren Mistry.
We were not surprised by FE Week’s recent findings that special exam requests were up by 8.7% in the 2022/23 academic year. In both the 2022 and 2023 Youth Voice Census, we heard from young people about their growing anxiety levels for those in education and preparing for exams as well as those looking for work.
In the 2023 Youth Voice Census, 19.9% of young people told us that they had special arrangements for exams for a range of issues including anxiety, mental ill health and dyslexia. 4.9% of young people told us that they had asked for special arrangements but were not granted it.
In the Resolution Foundations most recent report ‘We have only just begun‘, it was found that over one in three young people reported symptoms that indicated a common mental health disorder (CMH), such as depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder. The share of young people with CMDs has increased sharply since the mid-2010s – rising from one-in-four (24 per cent) in 2000 to one-in-three (34 per cent) by 2021-2022.
In our APPG Report on the impact of mental ill health on youth employment, we found that particular groups of young people were most at risk from mental ill health, and that too many young people cannot access the support that they need from local services. There was a clear link between the growing mental health issues of young people and the rising economic inactivity rates, which the Resolution Foundation also cited in their report.
Worryingly, four-in-five (79 per cent) 18-24-year-olds who are workless due to ill health only have qualifications at GCSE-level or below, compared to a one-third (34 per cent) of all people in that age group. This identifies the need for the Department of Education and Department for Health and Social Care to examine together the growing issues around mental ill health and the requirement to provide early intervention for young people to ensure that they have the support they need to achieve their academic potential.
As we consider the implications of these issues in terms of youth unemployment, it is safe to say that without significant intervention and support we will see more young people struggle to achieve the grades and support they need to make successful transitions from education into employment. This will have an obvious impact on economic inactivity and we can expect to see that rise, with employers then struggling to fill vacancies.
For UK employers, they will need to really understand these issues as the impact on their workforce could be significant. Removing barriers to work for young people and having the right support systems in place is going to be a key part to successful recruitment and retention of future hires. But as always, when employers do get this right they will benefit from new skills and insight and a sense of loyalty from those young people they support into good youth employment.
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