Is the media portraying the youth as feckless idiots with a tin pot degree deterring employers further.
I ask as I have found the lads who have worked for me and who have done work experience as highly motivated, mature and well worth employing.
However I get the impression from media reports that most under 25’s are portrayed as either uneducated lazy shite who wont work because they can get more on benefits or deluded graduates with a desmond in media studies waiting for their career job to just happen.

Probably a bit of both. Lot’s of dedicated kids worth employing, lot’s wondering why their degree in journalism hasn’t landed them a job as a leader writer for a broadsheet.

There was a special on newsnight last night on this –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15750105

in the current climate you can employ someone with 15 +years experience recently made redundant [ who will work for fraction of what they were previously earning due to the scarcity of jobs]. Why would you chance it on an inexperienced young person

I know one thing for sure. I wouldn’t fancy being under 25 right now. Whether qualified up to the eye-balls or a feral caaancil estate dweller. There’s **** all out there for them. And I don’t hold out much hope when you looked at the woefully patronising attitude displayed by the politicians, as displayed on Newsnight last night

politicians, lest we forget, who benefited from a free university education, affordable housing and full employment, etc, etc. Shortly before pulling the ladder up behind themselves

If I was under 25 I’d be making ready with the petrol bombs. I’m sure many are

in the current climate you can employ someone with 15 +years experience recently made redundant who will work for fraction of what they were previously earning due to the scarcity of jobs

See that? Thats me, that is

Bad news sells, therefore the media will always focus in on the negative, which is this context emphasises an issue that applies to the minority rather than being the norm.

It’s a dangerous precedent to set – the way young people are often perceived & treated can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy … they feel unvalued etc, start believing it and start behaving as such.

deluded graduates with a desmond in media studies waiting for their career job to just happen.

Three of the guys on my course (Chemical Engineering And Chemistry) got 1sts and struggled to find jobs and/or stay in them as companies shed people left/right/center.

My brother’s got a geology degree, and struggling to find work, but then he never seems to have the motivation to do anything about it so still works in a restaurant washing up.

Yes Bad news is what the British media seems to be all about.

I hope that the rush to Universities for a degree wil stop and that apprenticeships takes off.
But its pretty crap out there at the moment, cant see any improvements for a few years

I’m sure it’s a bit of both.

Although a couple of things I’ve noticed is:

a) If you’re going to have tattoo’s kids – put them somewhere they can be covered up easily. You boss doesn’t want you looking like that to his customers.

b) Dress appropriately – I know you want to be seen as individual, and it’s ‘your right’ to wear what you want. But your boss want’s to know you can look smart and professional. After all, you’re a face to his company.

c) Check your spelling and grammar – Covering letters, CV’s, emails, check them all. If you’re unsure get someone else to check over them for you.

prezet – Member
I’m sure it’s a bit of both.

Although a couple of things I’ve noticed is:

a) If you’re going to have tattoo’s kids – put them somewhere they can be covered up easily. You boss doesn’t want you looking like that to his customers.

b) Dress appropriately – I know you want to be seen as individual, and it’s ‘your right’ to wear what you want. But your boss want’s to know you can look smart and professional. After all, you’re a face to his company.

c) Check your spelling and grammar – Covering letters, CV’s, emails, check them all. If you’re unsure get someone else to check over them for you.

I blame their parents. And so does David “Two Brains” Willetts.

Haha yeah yeah I know. Luckily someone is stupid enough to employ me though.

If you go into a job centre and see/hear the people who go in to sign on, most of them really do sound like they have no intentions of getting a job and off the benefits. I luckily only had to go in to sign twice and just landed a great job so hopefully won’t be going back down there for a while! I’m 22, graduated from uni last July with a first and it has taken me over a year to finally get a job doing what I want to do. The problem (at least in what I’m doing) is that everyone wants experienced candidates rather than those with just degrees.

I’d suggest more kids need to volunteer…

When I was at uni studying graphic design, I took a evening/night job at a local reprographics house. It was bloody hard work – I’d be in uni for 9am, finish at 5pm, home, food and at work for 6pm and finish in the early hours. Then I’d work all day Saturday, and have Sundays for course work.

I did that for 3 years – and when I left uni I already had work experience. Admittedly I was getting paid – but I think with the current climate, just offering to help on weekends in a place to get experience is very valuable.

Im surprised at thisisnotaspoons response.
Im sure there will be many people out of work with very valuable degrees, but in Aberdeen they seem to be desperate for that sort of qualification, and Geology in oil exploration I would have thought was a cert for a great job travelling the world

c) Check your spelling and grammar – Covering letters, CV’s, emails, check them all. If you’re unsure get someone else to check over them for you.

.. because that way you can spot the employers who don’t know how to use apostrophes … 🙄

because that way you can spot the employers who don’t know how to use apostrophes

I’m an employer? Wooot.

I’m giving myself a massive annual bonus in that case.

I hope that the rush to Universities for a degree wil stop and that apprenticeships takes off.

Agree.

Youth employment figures are distorted because a lot of students are counted as unemployed, even though they are in full time education.

This is an interesting one for me and ties in with the Fuel Prices thread quite neatly. Myself and my girlfriend graduated from University last summer 2010. She graduated with a 1st class degree and I graduated with a 2.1 but top of my year.

We are both fortunate enough to have found jobs however there is not the luxury of being able to choose a job in the exact location we want as there are just not enough people recruiting for my particluar skills close to where my girlfriend works.

The result is that I have to either drive 50miles each way to work every day or live apart from my girlfriend (meaning we would both have to rent seperately). As well as this graduate salaries have dropped as there is more and more graduates for fewer jobs.

I dont want this to sound like a kind of ‘Woe is me’ whine but when people talk about putting up fuel prices it makes in increasingly hard for young people to start getting a foot hold in the working world and housing ladder.

I hope that the rush to Universities for a degree will stop and that apprenticeships takes off.

It depends what’s classed as an “Apprenticeship”. The word, as it presently being employed by the government, is very very misleading.

I did one when i left school. It was four years. And thats what most people think of. Think again. Now if you go on a kinetic handling course for a week, its classed as an Apprenticeship. And that’s what most of these figures being quoted are. They’re older people, already in employment, being sent on a weeks course, to gain some meaningless piece of paper. And they’ve got the bare-faced nerve to trumpet these as “Apprenticeships”

Laughable. If it was funny. In reality its another way of distorting horrendous employment figures

I hope that the rush to Universities for a degree wil stop and that apprenticeships takes off.

Me too, but I suspect that it’s an unrealistic hope.
My feeling is that a lot of the big companies that used to be the back-bone of the apprenticeship system just don’t exist any more, and I think for smaller companies the uncertainty in retention makes it a risky investment.

I went to uni in 1997 and then went back to uni in 2009, so have experience of spending a lot of time with both generations. Without doubt the 2009 classmates are harder working and way more motivated to succeed than the 1997 wasters.

Crispo
you should check out the exodus from the South on a Friday night.
Sometimes I think half the country is on the road out of the South East on a friday night, and on Monday morning its the same going South, endless cars with guys going down for the week, shirts hung up in the back.

The South East really does seem to support the rest of the country in work.

I dont want this to sound like a kind of ‘Woe is me’ whine but when people talk about putting up fuel prices it makes in increasingly hard for young people to start getting a foot hold in the working world and housing ladder.

Could you car share, or use a train?

Your situation won’t be like that forever – give it a year or two, and you and your girlfriend will be able to move onto other jobs much easier allowing you to choose where you live.

Petrol price increases are only going to keep on happening – really the people should put the pressure on car manufacturers to provide alternative solutions quicker. But the more people keep burning up the petrol and buying new cars there’s no incentive for them to change. Ultimately it is we, the public who can change things with our purchasing power.

The South East really does seem to support the rest of the country in work and tax revenue.

😈

The South East really does seem to support the rest of the country in work and tax revenue and is also the most densely populated part of the country, sucking all of the wealth creation out of the rest of the nation in order to feed and justify itself. Further, since the financial centre of the country i the same as its political cente, there has been an inherent confusion as to the value of politics and finance to the remainder of the nation

FTFY CFH

It really does remind me of when I left school in the mid 80’s, no jobs and very little hope, it was 10 years until I was able to find a decent job and actually start building my skill set. It was 10 years of my life that should have been about learning and enjoyment, but instead was basically about fear about what the future might hold.

I feel very sorry for the youth of today, if they go through what I did.

crispo – I was in a similar situation only 200 miles apart- we lived apart for 6 months, used trains to visit and neither of us dreamt of owning a car

sucking all of the wealth creation out of the rest of the nation in order

So the rest of the country supports the South East?

Lets hope that the current generation going through this economic crap will generate some descent music, Im thinking of past generations creating the best music in the worst of economic times.

Without doubt the 2009 classmates are harder working and way more motivated to succeed than the 1997 wasters.

With what they have to pay now I bet they are! Poor bastards have to go to all their lectures, work part time AND fit in protests. I went in the 90s too and I enjoyed myself far too much. No tuition fees was the norm then so I feel really sorry for them now. Then again the students before us got grants, but we didn’t protest.

The flip side I hear from people who work in Unis is that the students are more demanding and with so much competition between unis they are told to focus on providing the best ‘student experience’.

So the rest of the country supports the South East?

If that’s how you choose to misread it, then of course.

Well somebody has to pay for paving those streets with gold guv’nor

*doffs cap* 😉

If you go into a job centre and see/hear the people who go in to sign on, most of them really do sound like they have no intentions of getting a job and off the benefits. I luckily only had to go in to sign twice and just landed a great job so hopefully won’t be going back down there for a while! I’m 22, graduated from uni last July with a first

so they did not teach you to jump to conclusions based on minimal data then and they standards are slipping 🙄
Having worked in a JC i would say you get roughly three types
1. those who would work if they had they chance but have limited skills to offer or they have issues such as no car or childcare to resolve
2. those who have fallen on rough times
3 happy doleys
I have sympathy for them all. Wuld you wish to be any of those three groups?
I also think it is better to have happy doleys than unhappy ones as without a commitment to full employment we will always have them so better they are happy than rioting

Youth employment figures are distorted because a lot of students are counted as unemployed, even though they are in full time education.

You cannot do a full time course and sign on

Torminalis – Member

sucking all of the wealth creation out of the rest of the nation in order

So the rest of the country supports the South East?

Yup. Total Government spending per head of population is the highest in the south east.

If that’s how you choose to misread it, then of course.

It was a genuine question regarding a statement that is apparently very easy to misread.

Yup. Total Government spending per head of population is the highest in the south east.

That is completely unrelated to my question.

Youth employment figures are distorted because a lot of students are counted as unemployed, even though they are in full time education.

I thought it was the opposite- they’re not counted because they’re in education? Why would the Gov’t want to include them in the figures?

Why do you think Connexions now run courses like “Expectations of the Work Place”?
Because those kids who messed around and got bugger all qualifications from school still think they are top dog. They’ve gone from being Cock of the school to the bottom of the ladder in one day. They still apply the law of the playground to their new employer. When asked to do a menial job, the correct answer is not “eff off”. When the MD politely points out that your day glow hot pants and bikini top aren’t suitable clothing for the receptionist (Front of shop) you don’t say “Who are you, mi Dad?”

Spent the summer trying to fill 200 jobs using 2000 Connexions customers. Never work with Children or Animals! Never ever again.

torminalis – its a way of showing the the south east sucks money out of the wider economy.

We have open days for students and sometimes it’s a bit of an eye opener. Some course that market themselves as industry-specific are not teaching them what they need – we don’t expect them to pop out with a degree fully ready to run, but a lot of the time they’re missing really basic knowledge, or have been mislead (‘games design’ degrees that are actually cut down 3d art degrees are the worst offenders).

The worst ones though are the students who think that they can go straight into management because they have a degree. One was mortified when we explained that, in any company, he’d be starting as a junior and working his way up, rather than being able to walk straight into a project director role. He’d done a module in ‘Project Management’ and everything, bless… :s