Let’s invest in the skills of our young workers

1. Let’s invest in the skills of our young workers Young workers today are growing up in a unique environment. Economic shifts – brought on both by rapidly developing technology, globalisation and the looming threat of climate change – mean that the world of work they’ll enter will be basically unrecognisable from the one they were born into. In many ways, that is a fantastic thing. New inventions have enriched our lives in countless ways. Think about how an eighteen-year-old entering the world of work today was born when smartphones hadn’t even been invented. Yet these rapid economic changes have caused a huge skills deficit in our young people. Many of them will have skills that are now obsolete, or don’t fit the economic needs of the day and the future. This deficit will only increase as the type of jobs that make up our economy change as we move towards net-zero. The pandemic has hit young people the hardest, exacerbating this skills crisis. A report from the Resolution Foundation showed that 23% of employees aged 18- 24 years old being furloughed and a further 9% losing their jobs. The International Labour Organisation estimated that more than one in six young people have now stopped working due to the pandemic.   One month after the U.K. went into lockdown, the number of 18-24 years old claiming unemployment related benefits increased by 59% compared with the previous month, while the number of apprenticeships offered by employers fell 80% of pre-virus expectations. 

2. Education and training opportunities for young people have interrupted, creating long-term implications for the post-pandemic recovery. READ MORE Community trade union 465c Caledonian Road London UK N7 9GX editor@community-tu.org 0800 389 6332 https://community-tu.org/