Lost generation

The UK government has pledged more than 55 million pounds (65 million euros) to tackle youth unemployment in Britain which stands at almost one million people.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to subsidize an increase in the number of apprenticeships for 16-24 year-olds.

The cash boost comes after a report by a leading UK research institute, Demos, which warned that the problem of joblessness among young people is set to get a lot worse, predicting the figure could rise to 1.2 million.

Quality of qualifications

In the paper called "The Forgotten Half", which studied the paths of the five percent of youths who didn't go on to university studies, Demos found that the vocational qualifications that many young people did get were woefully inadequate for their future careers. Figures suggested that those types of certificates do not give good returns in the labor market.

"The problem with these courses is that they don't connect to other areas of the education system," said senior Demos researcher, Matt Grist.

"They're not well respected by employers and they don't have a high enough level of testing – they are too low quality, " Grist added.

Lack of direction

Demos also pointed to a severe shortage of entry level positions because many companies are reluctant to invest in on-the-job-training for young people.

The report also highlighted a lack of career advice for young people. It is ironic that one of the main support services for young people, Connexions, was one of the first organizations to face major cuts during the first round of government austerity measures.

At the Connexions office in Reading, a prosperous town 30 km west of London, young people can walk in to receive career guidance and to find out about apprenticeship schemes and continuing education opportunities.

"We've had two rounds of redundancy," said personal adviser Dianne Aston, who admitted that they have had to reduce the service they offer. "We've lost a lot of our advisers. We won't be going into schools as often as we used to, which is a crying shame really, because that's where it starts. The advisers need to start working with young people as early as possible."

After six months of job hunting, 18-year-old Atiya has been offered a work experience place at the Connexions office. "It's really bad out there," she said. "You wonder what's the point of going out there and looking for a job when you know it's been such a long time and you haven't got anything."

Lost generation?

Experts have long warned successive British governments that they were storing up the problem of long-term unemployment, which has seen to up to three generations of families who have never worked. This has led to an underclass.

"Its very difficult for young people from those kinds of backgrounds where they haven't got good role models and its difficult for us to try and motivate them into doing something" said Dianne Aston.

Similarly, Demos warned that today's youth could become a “lost generation” facing a similar stigma to those who became long-term unemployed throughout the 1980s recession during Margaret Thatcher's years as prime minister.

Matt Grist warned of a "scarring" effect. "The lesson from the early 80s was that people who experience long periods of unemployment when they were young earned a lot less over their lifetimes."

"Often there were other effects like depression - mental health problems that came from long periods of unemployment, which in the long term, can really damage the economy,” he added.

As part of its nearly 65 million euro investment in young people, the UK government claims that 100 large firms and tens of thousands of smaller companies have promised to offer work experience places for young people.

Officials say that more than 250,000 apprenticeship positions will be created over the next four years.

Author: Nik Martin
Editor: Andreas Illmer