Youth panel advises on getting past 'computer says no' barrier to work

Isabelle de Grave
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Exchanges between businesses and young people are rare. But Race for Opportunity, part of Responsible Business Week provided a place for executives and young people to share ideas of recruiting and retaining young talent.

 

Finding a job has become an increasingly exhausting and demoralising experience for many young people today. Hours spent drumming out cover letters and filling out application forms often results in nothing more than a grateful and conciliatory rejection email. 

At the other end, employers are blasted with tons of misfit applications, and interviewees lacking in skills, values and attitudes, eating up time and leaving few incentives to provide feedback to failed applicants.
 
As unemployment rates soar, reaching 993,000 for 16-24 year olds early this year, employers continue to take the easy road, gravitating towards those already with jobs and experience and blocking access to both graduates and non-graduates who may lack skills. 
 
“There is a huge disconnect between employers understanding what the youth have to offer and why it is important to connect and engage with them and bring them into their businesses” Adrian Joseph, director at Search Advertising Northern and Central Europe, Google and chair of Race for Opportunity, said.
 
The debate was chaired by Chris Humphries, chairman of National Numeracy and the event saw an exchange of ideas and possible solutions between business executives and a panel of young people to try and clear the thicket that separates young job seekers and employers.
 
“This is about good business, it's not all about altruism” said Peter Cheese chief executive of The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), highlighting the incentives for having a talent base that also reflects the consumer base of a company in helping to better meet the needs of those consumers.
 
“There is a clear need for employers to say, I have a responsibility here to actually try and help young people into work, and ask if it was my son or daughter would I want them to be given an opportunity?” Sir John Armitt, chairman, City & Guilds said, adding a more human angle to the discussion in an interview following the debate.
 
Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive, British Hospitality Association, called for a report produced by young people to help guide businesses in the way they recruit, communicate with and support young people looking for work. 
 
Members of the youth panel included Valerie Okoampa, an 18 year student studying politics and international relations at the University of Kent, Kofi Siaw, a 20 year old law student from Birmingham City University and BeAnna Davis, co-founder of young black graduates UK who shared a few first ideas for the report with Pioneers Post.
 
One panel member, who didn't wish to be named, said: “Entry-level jobs are not really entry level any more, feedback for every unsuccessful job interview I’ve had has often been, great interview but we found someone with more relevant experience.How does that help me? There needs to be inroads.”
 
Siaw flagged up the mismatch between young peoples’ aspirations and the jobs that are available. Whilst the media and communications industries are phenomenally oversubscribed, few think to embark on careers in less publicized or glamorous sectors such as the construction and engineering industries.
 
“I would like to get more young people’s perceptions on different industries, find out how they feel towards construction and engineering and see about changing misconceptions,” Siaw said.
 
There were also calls for feedback on failed applications and information to close a knowledge gap that often leaves young people stabbing in the dark as they search through job specs.
 
Siaw said: “We need to be able to see where a position can take us. Currently there is no big picture and we can’t see where we fit in, which is why many young people might be despondent in applying to certain positions. They can’t see where they are going.” 
 
But perhaps the biggest issue was the increasing characterisation of young people without the right experience as an expense and a risk for employers. 
 
BeAnna Davis added: “The main difficulty for us is making that first step to get experience. Employers are favouring those with experience so that they don’t have to invest in training and developing young people.”
 
The youth panel suggested that one possible solution to approach the risk averse nature of business would be to find a way to create incentives by cutting national insurance contributions, and channelling resources into training and development programmes and apprenticeships. 
 
For Gloria Wyse, who manages the advisory youth board, the event was energizing, and a first in her experience, that saw executives and board members leave a debate on youth unemployment with pages of notes.
 
“There has been an admittance today,” she said: “The executives have come together, exchanged business cards with us and are saying, we thought we knew it all but clearly we don’t, we are disconnected from young people. We thought we knew how to advertise and how to recruit and interview but clearly we don’t. Lets get the young people to help us do it now.”