Graduates are not receiving enough career advice or training opportunities

It is increasingly important for young people to have the opportunity of training with almost one million 16-24 year olds unemployed.

According to Schneider Trading Associates (STA) the amount of advice and information offered to graduates and school leavers around training and career advice is not enough.

In a recent survey by City & Guilds found that 22% of those studying for A-level and university qualifications haven’t received any careers advice and 28% of BTec and GNVQ students were not given any guidance either. The increase in tuition fees and the lack of graduate jobs available may mean that vocational training opportunities are the most advantageous path. Many companies aren’t offering the opportunity of this training to their graduates, graduate jobs that offer training are few and far between and most employers don’t see the advantages that this can bring.

Matt Silvester, head of training at Schneider, commented: “A new face-to-face National Careers Service for those aged 19 and over is due to be formed in the next six months by Government whilst schools will legally be obliged to offer careers advice.”

This is good news, yet because of the amount of graduate’s unemployed offering this service nationally is going to be the biggest problem. Many recent graduates are losing out on positions on graduate schemes because they don’t have the necessary experience, the dilemma is that they cannot gain this experience because they are not been given the chance.

It has also been reported that around three quarters of employers require applicants to have been rewarded or predicted at least a 2:1 grade. With an average of 83 applicants per graduate job this year graduates must gain extra skills through training, yet they are not receiving this.

Source: Pareto.co.uk, Wednesday 16th November 2011