YOUTH EMPLOYMENT POST COVID — Centric Magazine

By Nikeeta Phagura

Though a new year begins, the impacts of Covid-19 are far from last year’s news. Amidst its plethora of challenges, the rise in youth unemployment stands amongst the most worrying and longer-term concerns. The current youth unemployment rate is 14.5%, a jump from 12.1% last year and compared to 4.1% nationally. This amounts to a staggering 596,000 young people unemployed as of October 2020 and 14% increase vs. pre-pandemic first quarter. In seeking to address the problem of youth unemployment, this essay puts forward three connected policy proposals - “earlier integration of employment and education”, “a new points-based accreditation system branded the Skills Foundation Scheme” and, finally, “a formal fast-track Youth Employment Pathway” to our heavily affected public sectors. These 3 recommendations align to create a holistic yet innovative set of solutions to youth unemployment, by increasing employability and overcoming the vicious ‘no experience, no job’ cycle so prevalent for young people in today’s pandemic-ridden job market.

Integration of education and employment

In thinking through potential solutions, one could focus solely on reactive means towards job generation - but I believe it essential to start with education. It is after all the Conservative Party’s longstanding notion that education is key to building a child’s potential future. Yet many of our schools only begin introducing jobs and career opportunities at Year 11 (age 15/16) - the same age we expect our youth to think about next steps and choosing between apprenticeships, further education or community work. And in cases where schools do invite employers to discuss career opportunities in advance, it is on an adhoc basis and firmly focused on upper ages. The first proposal is to thus establish a more robust and integrated system between employers and schools, starting from Year 9. Facilitating this need not be complicated, as schools can leverage their existing strong relationships with Local Authorities, and hence work together to encourage local, prominent employers to provide workshops around potential opportunities. By taking a more proactive approach and providing earlier access to employers throughout education, we can encourage, engage and inspire our youth to understand potential job opportunities and pursue ambitions. This also seeks to better support them ahead of making important decisions about next steps and future choices. Whilst not an immediate solution to today’s youth unemployment, education can serve to better prepare and equip tomorrow’s youth for secure employment - in turn reducing longer term increases in unemployment.

The Skills Foundation Scheme

Giving young people earlier access to employers stands as the first step to solving for youth unemployment. The next is to ensure they have sufficient skills to secure a job, overcoming the all-too-familiar and vicious ‘no experience, no job’ cycle after full-time education. This makes way for my proposed Skills Foundation Scheme (hereafter SFS)- a new points-based Accreditation System allowing participants to gain insight into potential jobs, build new skills in interest areas and earn points towards formal qualifications. Young people aged 16-24 and out of work would be given the opportunity to complete short work placements at various registered employers of their choice (private, public or not-for-profit) and earn points of value once complete. These points would be recognised as an official accreditation similar to NVQ status. Participants would be given a Government-funded stipend to cover time and expenses, attractive enough to encourage engagement as opposed to welfare system reliance. Going one step further - and overcoming critiques some may recall of the 1980s’ Youth Training Scheme (YTS) - this initiative will not simply expect young people to complete repetitive training with no prospect of a full-time job upon completion. Young people can choose as many or as few placements across different industries, and continue to earn points of value - giving them the chance to better understand their interests, build upon foundational skills to bolster their CVs and preventing disengagement which led to many dropping out of the YTS early. Not only would the accumulated points be formally recognised towards a qualification, but also hold value in applications for permanent roles within the public sector, as to be discussed subsequently.

The SFS would be positioned as a highly impactful, tangible skills-based solution that builds upon the initial success of our recent Kickstart Scheme, which has generated 19,000+ jobs already. Given that Kickstart requires a more formal ask from the employer through 6-month placements, I believe this Scheme could generate powerful supply and demand across businesses and young people alike. In providing real opportunities to pursue areas of interest, build skills and achieve formal qualifications of value towards a full-time job, we can bring the youth unemployment rate down and shape our future leaders.

Youth Pathway to Public Sector

With new skills acquired, hands-on experience and formal accreditation to show for it, the final solution to youth unemployment is securing and retaining a job. Connected to the SFS, I propose the creation of a fast-track Youth Pathway to Public Sector jobs - even more critical with today’s understaffed and overstretched public sector workforce tackling Covid-19. The Youth Pathway to Public Sector would allow young people exclusive access to certain entry-level public sector roles, as opposed to more temporary positions that become vulnerable during uncertainty. Building this programme will go hand in hand with the SFS, as the hard-earned points from their experience placements would be weighted, recognised and visible across job applications. There could be minimum benchmarks required for certain roles, somewhat similar to the decile system used for graduating doctors. In doing so, we can showcase real merit and a tangible end goal to young people’s participation in the SFS - which was in fact another challenge to the YTS and reason for people not completing. Though this would undoubtedly require heavy investment and administrative prowess to deliver, I believe there is strong rationale and mutual benefit for our young people and public sectors. On the one hand, we can best support the public sector with hardworking, enthusiastic and committed talent who might well choose to invest their longer-term careers there. On the other, we will slowly reduce the disproportionally high representation of young people currently working in the gig economy, which has been most vulnerable to Covid-19 furloughs/redundancies and thus a high instigator for the rapid youth unemployment increase. In establishing the fast-track Youth Pathway to Public Sector, we can truly future-proof youth employment generation and the public sector for years to come - and in the face of other national challenges.

In conclusion, this essay has proposed a set of holistic policy proposals to address the rising youth unemployment rate, taking both short and longer- term approaches. Through the provision of earlier integration with employment and education, the Skills Foundation Scheme to gain further experience, and creating clear routes to employment through the fast-track Youth Pathway to Public Sector - we can effectively reduce youth unemployment and further tackle the growing risk of welfare system dependency at such a young age. As Thatcher’s quote exemplifies, the Conservative party has long committed to setting up foundations for success and supporting people into work. And I believe that the innovative solutions presented here will do just that - for today’s young people as well as tomorrow’s.