If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The job-related hurdles facing today's young people are well-documented. With youth unemployment at an all-time high, combined with deep cuts to higher education, the situation doesn't look too promising for what some economists are speculatively referring to as the 'lost generation.'
I guess it's a bad thing that in today's society 'The Future' is not seen as something positive or aspiring, but instead something you have to prepare for with a trillion exams and work experience.
When I finished uni, it became pretty apparent that graduates had almost no chance of survival. A lot of people my age had made the decision to travel. Doing a lower end job becomes more bearable when you can justify it with "well, I'm going travelling in a few months, so whatever."
The reality for the majority of graduates this year is that their average starting salary will be about £20,000 - lower outside London. Most new graduates will get jobs, and will not get them on large graduate training schemes, but with small businesses and local firms.
As I continue my voyage into discovering just why so many of my generation are still unemployed, I continue to look for ways to remedy this. 264,000 young people - meaning those under the age of 24 - are long term unemployed.
It's an utter travesty without qualification for a young person in want of a job to be unemployed. But it's equal if not more a travesty to see young people go through education uninformed about the world of work and uninformed about where the job potential lies.
UK students and graduates are facing a difficult and competitive employment market. It's important to adopt a global outlook when it comes to study and work, so candidates who have international experience (in almost any way) will undoubtedly have an advantage when it comes to applying for jobs.
Young people continue to create Britain's brands of the future. I have founded businesses as a recent graduate and many people I looked up to did exactly the same. Richard Reed of Innocent Smoothies, James Dyson, and James Murray-Wells of Glasses Direct founded their businesses as recent graduates.
Often people don't know the best way to go about looking for information on training, jobs and careers, which is certainly where we can come in. I've heard time and time again from clients that many think they have missed their chance.
I started working at Xfm in late September 2011. My work experience was due to last two weeks; allowing me a brief but intense insight into life on a London breakfast show. On 21 December 2012, 16 months later, my work experience finally finished.
During my travels I met lots of people. To begin with I latched on to anyone who would have me. Anyone, just so I wasn't alone. But gradually, as I meet more and more people, I began to identify what I liked in a person, what made me want to spend time with someone.
