With the number of young people currently not in education, employment or training standing at more than 800,000, giving school leavers the opportunity to join the working world is really important. Not only does it provide a boost for the economy but your company can also benefit from the fresh thinking and enthusiasm young people can bring. However, many businesses report a lack of skills amongst young people, including customer service, time management and problem solving, hindering recruitment and staff retention. So why is this the case and how do you capitalise on the positives of young people to equip them with the skills they need to become productive employees?
Recent research we did showed the majority of companies don’t think school leavers are ready for the workplace in terms of having the right skills, mind set and attitude and more than half of companies said they didn’t plan to take on a young person straight from school in the next couple of months. This boiled down to a lack of experience, not knowing how to behave in a work environment and attitude and general professionalism.
For many young people, getting that foot on the career ladder and getting the opportunity to build these attributes can be a difficult challenge. On the job training, such as Apprenticeships, can be the perfect opportunity to give someone this introduction to the working world and build them from the ground up. Providing a young person with a vocational qualification allows them to develop the crucial work experience and workplace skills which are essential to thrive and progress in any industry. However it also provides real benefits for the company. It’s an opportunity to develop a talent pipeline for the future and it can help fill skills shortages and encourage business growth. With Apprenticeships increasingly becoming a viable alternative to university, there’s often a high calibre of students to choose from.
For those school leavers who need further training to get them up to a level needed to be an apprentice, Traineeships offer a stepping stone for both the individual and the company. They allow employers to get a feel for the individual and whether they suit the organisation. Similarly the young person will be able to get a taster for the sector and decide if it’s right for them.
Although the benefits of training and development are often clear, barriers can stand in the way of successful implementation. In many sectors concerns often arise around how training can be delivered without a great upheaval to the day-to-day running of the business and in the current economic climate, with restricted budgets, many businesses are thinking more about short-term survival than they are about long term development. However, if training is properly and thoroughly thought through and implemented correctly, businesses can really reap the benefits.
The explosion of technology over the last few years means it’s now much easier to fit training around work patterns. For young school leavers in particular, technology is such a common part of life this offers a really familiar way of learning for them. In fact, our research showed the digital and social media knowledge of a young person is one of the biggest reasons they would take them on.
There are a number of things which should be taken into account when recruiting school leavers and providing learning programmes. From the outset you need to really think about what the business wants to achieve and ensure the learning is tailored to fit your needs. When a business has real input into the learning programmes of their staff it provides an opportunity to really embed the ethics and values of an organisation into the training. For young people entering the world of work for the first time, this is real opportunity to shape them into the employee your business needs. Only by doing this will you succeed in building a loyal workforce for the future.
