How to beat rising youth unemployment

British youth unemployment has risen to its highest level in twenty years with almost a million 16-24 year olds failing to find employment; one-fifth of the country’s eligible youth and, according to the Prince’s Trust, ‘enough to fill every football stadium in the Premier League, with almost 200,000 left queuing outside’[i].

Following the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King’s announcement that the British economy is set to endure the recession for some time yet, after receiving the latest inflation rates, unemployment looks set to continue with the younger workers hardest hit.

How can this decline in employment opportunities be reversed? David Cameron was yesterday on the receiving end of being accused of “betraying a whole generation of young people” by Ed Miliband after his own comments to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009.  The Coalition Government has said that it will address this concerning spiral of decline by improving welfare and education systems and further promoting ‘back to work’ schemes such as their £1.4bn pledge to create 100,000 more apprentices by 2014.

Ultimately, it is up to each individual to promote themselves to potential employers. In order to do this, everyone should be looking to improve their CVs. Despite the popularity of personal statements in CVs, the two crucial areas for employers are education and work experience. Therefore, our advice to today’s ‘would-be workers’ is not ground-breaking!

Hard work whilst in education increases the employment options available to you afterwards. Academic ability shows an employer that you have the capacity to work hard and have theoretical and technical knowledge that may be applied to their business.  A review of your work history shows that you have been able to apply this knowledge to the commercial world, that you are enthusiastic and proactive in your search for employment, that you can operate in the working environment and that your skills have been monetarily rewarded.

To further highlight your abilities in this area, we would strongly suggest using a skills-based CV where you mention each applicable skill and reiterate when and how you have applied this skill in your academic or employment experiences. For example;

Leadership: In 2010, my Business Management seminar required us to undertake a presentation. I was selected the group’s representative and I was required to take the ultimate decisions when assessing the composition, style and content of the presentation. We achieved a 72% mark.    

Therefore, to beat rising youth unemployment, we would strongly suggest working hard whilst in education, building your CV with work experience placements and internships and highlighting the applicable skills and abilities that you have built up in your CV. More advice and tips can be found on our website www.getworkexperience.com