The government has received a lot of attention for providing jobs for young people impacted by the pandemic, but employers play an important role as well, writes Mat Ilic of Catch22.
Young people are being struck harder than ever before by the unemployment crisis. We know that under 24-year-olds account for 63% of the drop in jobs and that many of them have also struggled with the mental health effects of lockdown and the disruption of education.
This month, as part of Catch22’s Employability Summit Series, we looked at how young people and employers can navigate the plethora of schemes and rewards available to help improve employability as the lockdown eases and the country searches for ways to rebuild more effectively.
The shuttered industries, on the other hand, are beginning to reopen. What makes us think we should be worried?
Long-term unemployment among young people (those out of work or training for more than 12 months) has increased by 40%, affecting 215,000 young people. These figures, according to Laura-Jane Rawlings of Youth Jobs UK, represent a problem that existed before the pandemic and is now being rapidly exacerbated: “There’s real evidence now of the scarring effect of long-term unemployment, not only on individuals’ social and emotional wellbeing but on their overall long-term employment and earning capacity over their lifetime.”
“Before the pandemic, young people were more likely to live in more precarious job conditions, such as zero-hour contracts, part-time work, and being the last one in, first out.”
Dal Channa of Movement to Work, a national alliance of employers, community outreach organizations, and government allies that put more than 25,000 young people in work placements last year, aims to assist businesses in breaking the “no job, no experience or no experience, no job” loop.
“We know things got worse before it got better… we’re now in a situation where we’ve got a bit of hindsight,” she said, comparing the current recession to unemployment in 2010. Now is the time to consider what could work best for your business. We have the chance to lay the groundwork for a much more promising future.”
We want to see society grow stronger as a result of the Covid-19 crisis by normalizing and valuing youth work.
Everyone benefits if we can create good-paying jobs for people from these communities, reducing the cost to the government and all the other social costs that would arise otherwise.
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Initiatives from the government have been implemented. Do they appear to be effective?
Apprenticeships are being subsidized with a large amount of money. Employers may apply for a £3,000 grant, and programs like Kickstart are expected to finance 250 million placements. Salesforce’s Kirstin Steinmetz says the company uses both apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships and sees upskilling the current and future workforce as extremely valuable and important.
“Yes, we have to put in a little bit more time and effort to handle and prepare an apprentice,” she said, “but what we all get back at the end of the day is just so worth it.”
Although there was a relief when government schemes were introduced, many small businesses are still hesitant to hire new employees, according to David Hale of the Federation of Small Businesses. Therefore, continued support, particularly for new recruitment, is critical.
Just 16 percent of businesses surveyed by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said they would consider using the Kickstart system.
So, what are your options? Builders are needed for bettering the situation. builders merchants Pulborough. Three primary requirements, according to Catch22:
- More deliberate signaling from the government is needed.
Ministers are yet to specify what the UK’s potential competitive advantage would be after Brexit and Covid, leaving several employers unsure of the best course of action.
Singapore’s recovery is being led by STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] and medical fields, with work listings for scientific research more than tripling and pharmacy, nursing, and dental jobs more than doubling.
With the spring declaration on green employment, the UK has taken a step in the right direction, but more concrete proposals are needed.
Any of the measures aimed at assisting young people that were recently announced to have yet to bear fruit. In February, Kickstart, the government’s flagship youth employment program, was generating only 13 jobs a day for young people, while 292 were losing their jobs regularly. More championing of the importance of young people, the rewards of their talent, and the duty we all have to help them recover from the shock of the previous year are needed around the country.
- Interventions and programs that are specific to the problem are needed.
Job instability harms those least willing to handle it, reducing the contribution of a large number of employees to the labor market. Some would argue that we cannot address this until the economy has recovered, but providing protection can and should play a role in fostering a more sustainable economy beyond Covid-19, where employment is a surefire way out of poverty.
As the case of the Black Country Museum demonstrates, hearing about the creativity of smaller cultural organizations on new media such as TikTok has been encouraging.
In the hospitality industry, Diageo, the creators of Movement to Work, has launched ‘Raising the Bar,’ which aims to assist nightclubs and pubs in the UK in adopting sanitary processes that will enable them to continue operating as the lockdown eases.
Many charities serve as gateway providers for government programs, acting as middlemen who send applications on behalf of employers for programs such as Kickstart. Since the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) inspects these organizations, the standard varies.
Instead, intermediaries can use resources to promote programs like Catch22’s Kickstart Community, which allows local organizations to collaborate at a rapid pace to put together purposeful employers and young people while providing wrap-around holistic support that contributes to long-term jobs filled by young people who have been mentored throughout.
