Clearview National January 2015 - Issue 158 | Page 25

INDUSTRYNEWS

Good Practice In Apprenticeship
Recruitment, Tackling
Youth Unemployment
For years the UK has battled high youth unemployment, but with the
UK now emerging from recession, the issue of youth unemployment
has recently improved. However, despite this, 750,000 young people
aged between 16 and 24, are currently unemployed.
»»2014 figures show,
apprenticeship schemes, school-leaver
programmes, internships and work experience
programmes have been introduced in an
attempt to get young people in to employment
or involved in some form of training to help
them with future employment prospects.
Nonetheless, the number of youths in
employment is still poor.
Katerina Rudiger, Head of Skills and Policy
Campaigns, CIPD, has noted the importance
of this still overwhelming figure, stating
that: “those experiencing extended periods of
unemployment in their youth are likely to face
social and psychological disadvantages for a
lifetime.”
Not only this, the lack of a young, up
and coming workforce, causes problems for
companies and organisations as they fail to
build talent and invest in their company’s
future by training new staff.
In a bid to tackle the substantial gap
that contributes to the poor labour market
situation of young people, the CIPD has
created a report, commissioned by the
National Apprenticeship Service (NAS).
‘The match factor – Good practice in
apprenticeship recruitment’ report, released
in October 2014, examines why so many
apprenticeships remain unfilled.
It notes that the root of issues in the lack
of uptake in apprenticeship opportunities is
due to a ‘mismatch in expectations’ by both
the employer and the prospec ѥٔ