The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s latest string of their Post-Pandemic Economic Growth Inquiry will examine the challenges faced by workers and employers in the UK labour market and what the Government can do to support the labour market. The Committee called on business organisations, unions and other experts to inform the inquiry. Youth Employment UK responded to a specific and limited part of the enquiry in relation to the question: What more can the Government do to ensure that employers are able to recruit people with the right skills for the job, including the effective use of apprentices?
Background
At the time of the consultation (June 2022) there was a record-high number of job vacancies and an all-age unemployment rate consistent with pre-pandemic levels at 3.8%. However, the unemployment rate for young people aged 16-24 was nearly three times the all age rate at 10.8%. The number of young people between 16-24 who were economically inactive and NEET was at 457,000, which was up by 25,000 on the last quarter.
A further concern was the rising NEET rate amongst young people of compulsory education age. 5.0% of 16-17 year olds were NEET at this time, the highest rate since 2013. The percentage of economically inactive 16-17 was also up, up 1.4% to 3.8% from 2020. Youth Employment UK noted that rising economic inactivity rates and falling education or participation was likely to lead to implications for the number of young people who are prepared for apprenticeships and work in the future.
At the time of the consultation, job vacancies had hit 1.3 million for the first time ever. Given the demand for workers, Youth Employment felt that it was clear that employers, with help and guidance from the government, needed to do more to attract and recruit the right people with the right skills, this was particularly pertinent for young people.
Youth Employment UK’s Findings
Youth Employment UK conducts an annual Youth Voice Census to gather key insights into the experiences and views of young people. The 2021 Youth Voice Census is a weighted and representative annual survey exploring the views and experiences of young people in the UK between the ages of 14 – 24.
Youth Employment UK’s 2021 Youth Voice Census found that the top three barriers young people faced when applying for work were: anxiety (41.1%), lack of work experience (38.7%) and location (32.7%).
Anxiety
- 25.9% of young people think employers are supportive of hiring them.
- 33% of young people still in education believed they understood the skills employers were, however these were not always the skills young people rated themselves strongly in.
- Just over half of those 18 years and older believed they had had the skills and confidence to write a CV (54.1%) and less than 30% believed they had the skills to attend an assessment centre.
Work Experience
- Only 37.5% of young people in the 2021 Youth Voice Census had the option of work experience during their secondary school education.
- Only two-thirds (64.9%) of those with the option for work experience took it up. This reveals the significant lack of work experience young people currently have.
- Without work experience or experiences of work young people are less likely to be aware of expectations of a workplace environment, job responsibilities, potential career paths and the wider world of work.
Location
- Accessing quality work where they live is a concern for young people, just 9.9% believe they will be able to find quality work where they live, and confidence in finding quality work declined as young people got older.
- Research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found significant variations in the number of apprenticeship starts both between regions and within regions.
- Such vast variations of apprenticeship starts reveals that not all young people have equal access to apprenticeship opportunities.
Apprenticeships
- Apprenticeships can be a valued and important route to work for many young people. However, there remain significant barriers for young people in accessing high-quality apprenticeships in the areas they live in.
- The Youth Voice Census 2021 found that a significant majority of young people who have started apprenticeships feel they have made the right career choice (77.6%).
- Moreover, a significant proportion of young people surveyed, 84.7%, would rate their apprenticeship as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ overall.
- The number of young people starting apprenticeships over the past four years has fallen. The total number of apprenticeship starts fell by 52,300 between 2018/19 and 2020/21, although there has been some recent upward trends in the first two quarters of 2022.
- Under 19s were most affected by this drop in numbers, in the academic year 2018/19 there were 66,000 apprenticeship starts between August and January amongst under 19s, this dropped to 38,800 in the 2020/21.
- Young people are less likely to have discussed apprenticeships on multiple occasions in school than applying to university, 43% of respondents had discussed going to university more than five times compared to just 25.9% of respondents who had discussed apprenticeships more than five times.
- The Youth Voice census also found that young people were twice as likely to apply for university (65.4%) than apply for an apprenticeship (28.6%).
Youth Employment UK Recommendations
1. Recognise the Good Youth Employment Standards as the youth-friendly standard of good employment.
To help employers find the right people with the right skills, businesses and organisations must be youth friendly to attract young talent to their workforce. The government should recognise the Good Youth Employment Standards as the expected standard of good youth employment in the UK.
2. Improve careers advice in schools which is linked to skills required by employers and covers all routes into work
The Skills Bill requirement for schools to provide six encounters with higher education and apprenticeship providers is a welcome step towards improving the quality of careers education, however the government must make sure that careers advice is comprehensively joined up to the skills required by employers. The government should work closely with employers to establish the key skills required by businesses and organisations and match the skills identified with a robust, high-quality careers education so that young people are aware of the skills they need to access employment.
3. Recognise the Young Professional Programme as the route for young people to learn about themselves, future career opportunities and develop the skills needed for the world of work.
Youth Employment UK has developed a holistic training programme providing young people with opportunities to develop the skills needed for work. The programme also provides virtual work experience opportunities to provide insight into the world of work for young people.
The government should recognise the value of this programme as the route for young people developing the skills needed to access employment. The programme enables young people to make informed choices about their next steps and will help ensure that employers are able to fill vacancies with young people with the right skills.
