The economic downturn has hit everyone is some way or another, but in particular the 18 – 24 year old generation as you’ve know doubt read about in the continual stream of media reports. Just this month, the results of a study by The Princes Trust revealed that since 2008 there has been a staggering 168% increase in 18 – 24 year olds out of work for at least six months.

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) is leading the way in tackling youth unemployment by launching a ‘Learning to Work’ campaign.  The campaign’s aim is to encourage employers to invest in tomorrow’s workforce by helping young people prepare for the workplace and offering a wider range of access routes into organisations. 

One of the major hurdles facing today’s school and college leavers is employers’ negative perceptions of them, in particular the perception that they come out of education without the right skills for the workplace.  But as the CIPD’s chief executive, Peter Cheese explains in an interview with People Management, it’s not realistic to expect young people to come out of education with the exact skills needed for the workplace and employers need to invest in training and development programmes:

“The reality in many parts of the economy – especially in the knowledge industries – is that there’s such a diversity of work that there’s a sense that it’s simply not possible to channel exactly the skills you need straight from education to fill all your jobs. Organisations have to have training and development programmes to continually up-skill. So why shouldn’t that be true from the moment you recruit? If you invest in the skills of your workforce, it makes sense to invest in them from the start.”

If organisations don’t recruit, train and develop younger people, in 10 – 20 years we could be faced with a workforce with no young people in it and have a severe skills gap!

Interested in finding out how Matchett Group can help your organisation develop a bespoke training programme to aid the development of your future talent?  Please get in touch with one of our team.