State of the Nation report: youth joblessness ‘a toxic legacy’

THOUSANDS of young Scots face a bleak future of poverty, joblessness and poor health, a new State of the Nation report has warned.

The number of Scots aged under 25 who are out of work has doubled to 90,000 since 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said.

The report also found that a boy born in the most deprived 10 per cent of Scotland would have a life expectancy of just 68.

That is eight years younger than the national average, and 14 years below boys born in the least deprived parts of the country.

The foundation urged Scottish ministers to take action to help the nation’s poorest.

Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “The Scottish Government has powers to do a lot now. They don’t need to wait for constitutional change.

“Routes into work, childcare, training are all things they can affect now. It’s a fiendishly difficult time. We face a decade of destitution unless governments increase what they are doing dramatically.”

She warned high levels of youth unemployment would create a toxic legacy for future generations. “That’s a shocking indictment that we will be paying for for decades,” she said.

The report also highlighted the rise in part-time employment, from 70,000 in 2008, when the economic crisis hit, to 120,000 now.

Health inequalities “are not only stark, but growing”, the report warns. Rates of mortality for heart disease are twice as high in deprived areas, at 100 per 100,000 under-75s, compared with the national average. Cancer mortality rates are 50 per cent higher in poorer areas, at 200 per 100,000.

It is not all bad news, however. Over the past decade, the proportion claiming unemployment benefit in Scotland has fallen from 17 to 15 per cent. Despite still having the highest proportion of claimants at 22 per cent, Glasgow has seen the biggest fall.

However, the bulk of that decrease came between 2002 and 2007, with many areas seeing a slight rise since then.

Scotland’s child poverty rate has dropped 10 per cent in a decade, and is now lower than England and Wales, while pensioner poverty has almost halved. This continued to fall in recent years, with 220,000 children and 120,000 pensioners living in poverty, after housing costs in 2010-11, the most recent figures.

Anne Houston, chief executive of the charity Children 1st, said: “While the figures around child poverty are hopeful, the wider statistics on unemployment for under-25s and life expectancy really are quite stark.

“These issues are likely to be exacerbated by the impending [Westminster] welfare reforms. However, the Scottish Government needs to continue to look at areas where they have authority to see how the pressure on families in Scotland can be ameliorated.”

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, convener of Holyrood’s economy committee, added: “We have huge challenges on health inequalities in Scotland, and more needs to be done to get key messages through.

“Youth unemployment remains a concern, but across the UK things are beginning to look up.”

The Scottish Government insisted Westminster benefit cuts were the biggest threat when it came to poverty and inequality.

A spokesman said: “It is clear the impact of the cuts will extend across Scottish society, with vulnerable groups, women and working families all likely to suffer.”

Source: 21 January 2013, Scotsman.com by Gareth Rose

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/state-of-the-nation-report-youth-joblessness-a-toxic-legacy-1-2748586

Graduates without work experience will be left out in the cold

Many soon-to-be graduates will be left without a job due to lack of work experience, new research suggests. High Fliers’ The Graduate Market in 2013report, released today, declares that of all entry level vacancies available for 2013, over a third will go to those who have already completed internships or work experience for the company.

The toughest fields to get into without having experience are banking and law, it has been revealed. This may well be, but what happens when these internships are so fiercely competitive that they are practically impossible to come across?

In the legal profession, university students have the option to apply to take part in a vacation scheme: a two or three week paid work experience that provides insight – and contacts – in a law firm. However, Jack Denton, co-founder of the research website AllAboutCareers.com, estimates that for approximately 3,150 places on the schemes nationwide, there are more than 12,000 applicants.

Three thousand schemes might seem like a generous amount, but when one considers that most students who secure one work placement also manage to achieve at least one more in another firm, these get swallowed up very quickly by a fairly select bunch.

As former Labour minster Alan Milburn pointed out in his 2009 report, Fair Access to the Professions, law is one of the “most socially exclusive” fields to work in, and firms’ “closed shop mentality” means that connections, and ‘who you know’, is often prioritised above talent. It is unfortunate that this attitude isn’t limited to the legal profession.

So what other options are available to those who haven’t managed to secure this ever-important addition to their CV?

With most core Universities offering hundreds of societies which welcome the participation of anybody and everybody, there is no excuse for not getting involved. It is not, either, impossible to go one step further and assume a volunteer role in the committees of these societies. Invaluable budgeting experience could be gained in the role as treasurer, for example, organisational skills for social secretaries and management skills for presidents.

Students need to make the most of opportunities that are there for them,  before it is too late and all that can be done to beef up the CV is to work tirelessly for free in the hope that one pitiful employer might eventually hire you for, you know, real money.

Or, following Adam Pacitti’s recent example, entry level aspirators could make their own opportunities. This 24-year-old Portsmouth University graduate spent his last £500 on a Camden billboard begging employers to ‘Employ Adam’. Inspired, huh? He is looking for a job in the creative field of television production, so let’s hope someone takes a punt on him soon and ends the unemployed misery of at least one former student.

But it’s not all bad news for the next generation to leave university. The outlook is good for the 2013 graduate job market, with an expected increase of 2.7 per cent. Perhaps that will go some way to reduce the approximate 50 per cent of graduates from last year who are under- or unemployed.

Source: 14 January 2013, New Statesman by Catriona Harvey-Jenner

http://www.newstatesman.com/economics-blog/2013/01/graduates-without-work-experience-will-be-left-out-cold

Students want universities' help for working life

The vast majority of students want universities to help their transition into employment.

This is according to the Great Expectations survey, published today (Thursday 17 January) by GTI Media Research, part of graduate careers specialists Group GTI. More than 2,300 undergraduates from 125 different universities were surveyed for five weeks at the end of 2012.

The vast majority (97%) of the students surveyed fully expect their university to help them develop employability skills. While over a third think their university is mostly responsible for preparing them for the working world.

The survey also found that greater numbers of undergraduates are using their university career service compared to six years ago. The 36% of respondents who had not used the service either said they did not have enough time to or they had not got around to it. Six years ago, the most common reason was that they could not find it.  

While students favour the heavy use of email and internet communication by university careers services, they think social media is poorly utilised.

Chris Phillips, Information and Research Director at GTI Media, says: “With the cost of higher education rocketing and the economy suffering, it’s more important than ever to examine how well universities and the ‘university experience’ prepare students for life after graduation.

“Almost all students surveyed said that developing employability skills was their No.1 aim. The careers service has a big role to play in helping the university give students multiple opportunities to improve the skills needed in a competitive job market.”

Source: 17 January 2013, Ask Grapevine HR

http://www2.askgrapevine.com/news/hr/article/2013-01-17-students-want-universities-help-for-working-life/