A recently launched YouGov research paper, showed that 62% of young people leaving full-time education haven't decided on a career path. Unfortunately, I think the 'real' is actually higher than that!! It also states that 62% of them turn to their peers and social networking sites such as Facebook for career advice!!! (How long will it take Facebook to latch on to that bit of free publicity??)
The reason why - schools and colleges offer little constructive career advice, if any at all. And when they do, the young people have no respect for it because it is usually delivered by teachers or 'experts' that the young people just can't relate to.
These so called experts have rarely come from the commercial sector, and certainly are not switched on to new ideas or new methods of recruitment. Of course at this early stage in a career, most people just won't know what they want to do. What they need are suitably skilled individuals, who they can relate to and trust. They need people who are on the pulse with corporate needs and workforce demands, and I am not just talking about this year or next, but the medium term future.
The ageing workforce, the eastern european immigration and the skills migration abroad are all changing the ways companies are managing their workforces. These companies are having to look at lower skill entry levels, more intense skills training and more creative recruitment and retention methods going forward. There is tremendous variety and opportunity out there for young people who want a career, but of course they need to be informed well. Without the good information in the first place, how are they going to make good decisions. These young people of today represent the UK's workforce of tommorrow, but they need to be given the right start now - out of touch, non-internet savvy, 'older' career advisors who have no common ground with the students is not the way forward.
Why am I so passionate about this?......easy really, I have two teenagers who have experienced just this!!
