Youth Employment – Making Friends and Reviewing Trends at the YEUK Parliamentary Reception

By REC Director of Policy, Tom Hadley and Sunduss Hamdan 

We recently attended the launch of the Youth Friendly MP campaign at the House of Commons, which encourages MPs to commit to the agenda and deliver specific youth employment related activities in their constituency. The event was also a great platform for showcasing the positive role that recruiters are playing in building better bridges into the world of work. 

Labour MP Andy Sawford underlined his belief that "good jobs will lead to good lives" and made the point that “hard working students are just not finding the opportunities they need”. The MP for Corby went on to highlight the crucial role that local employers can play by helping young people to build up practical experience. Just this week, a report commissioned by the Labour Party called Digital Skills for Tomorrow’s World has found that we need to better equip young people with digital skills if we are to grow our businesses and ensure we have the services we need in the future.

That’s one of the reasons why it is so important for all employers, and especially recruiters who see how the labour market is changing first hand, to continue to support initiatives like Inspiring the Future and the REC Youth Employment Charter.  It’s not all one way either – the REC members who supported last week’s careers fair organised by Entrepreneurs in Action said how inspiring it was to work with Year 10 students on their CVs and interview techniques.

Chloe Smith, the Conservative MP for Norwich touched on the benefits for employers of recruiting young job-seekers – through apprenticeships and other initiatives - as a means of “nurturing new talent and bringing in fresh approaches”. The business case for hiring young people is at the heart of the CIPD’s ‘Learning to Work’ campaign, and encouraging employers to review current hiring procedures and criteria is also one of the core messages within the REC’s Good Recruitment Campaign. 

Pamela Nash MP made the point that “although all the major parties have different proposals for addressing youth unemployment, they are all committed to finding solutions”. This is the core rationale behind the ‘Youth Friendly MPs’ initiative to which Laura Jane Rawlings, CEO of YEUK, formally invited MPs from all sides of the house to sign up. 

What did recruiters in the room make of it all? Mike Cooper, Managing Director of The Best Connection said it is was, “encouraging to witness the passion across all political parties for addressing the youth unemployment challenge,” but also argued that, “the missing piece to the jigsaw is encouraging young people to gain work experience in sectors that lend themselves to more vocational training and development opportunities”. This is spot on. As well as driving future generations towards highly skilled sectors like engineering, technology and life sciences, we need to raise awareness of vocational routes for young people to break into the jobs market and build rewarding careers. Mike’s conclusion was also bang on the money: “By experiencing the benefits of being in a working environment, young job-seekers will develop as people and progress within the jobs market. There are plenty of opportunities out there!”

Other REC members including  Adecco and Staffline also attended the event and we will continue to position our industry’s voice at the forefront of the youth employment debate. Whilst official figures show that youth employment is starting to move in the right direction, we know that much more needs to be done to boost skills, awareness and aspirations. Developing a world class and coordinated careers guidance network must be part of the solution and is something we have been calling for since our Youth Employment Taskforce in 2010. The UK recruitment industry is committed to playing its part in building better bridges into work – through specific initiatives such as our Youth Employment Charter and by supporting the work of key organisations such as Youth Employment UK.