Young people across Worcestershire are writing to “countless” employers for job opportunities, but many don’t even get a response.
Sara-Jane Watkins, chief executive and principal of Warwickshire College Group (WCG), raised the issue during a visit by skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith to Pershore College today (June 26).
She warned that limited employer engagement is blocking young people from vital work experience and employment opportunities, with a growing number classed as NEET (not in education, employment, or training).
Ms Watkins said: “Some of the biggest barriers young people face are mental health and anxiety.
“But the greatest challenge for young people is what happens to them after they have completed college.
“They have got their qualifications, but many young people are struggling to get employment because of the rise in the national minimum wage and economic uncertainty.
“We are getting to a point where there are nearly 1.25 million young people who are classed as NEET.
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“It’s about providing opportunities for those individuals.
“In Worcestershire alone, the county has to provide, every single year, over a million hours of work experience.
“If employers don’t engage, employers don’t give individuals that opportunity and that chance, it is very difficult for them to open doors.
“I hear from young people who write to hundreds of employers looking for an opportunity, and they rarely even receive a response.
“Imagine what that does to a young person’s confidence.
Sara-Jane Watkins and Baroness Jacqui Smith spoke with regional employers, stakeholders, and the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership ahead of a jobs and career fair at Pershore College (Image: Daniel Kelly/NQ)
“For a generation that already feels let down, throwing their aspirations into a void only increases the feeling that nobody cares.”
Ms Watkins stressed the need for real opportunities to be available for those left behind by the pandemic and now facing job market challenges.
Following a conference with regional employers, stakeholders, and the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, Pershore College hosted a jobs and career fair, bringing directly together both employers and students.
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Local MPs Nigel Huddleston and Harriett Baldwin both attended.
Baroness Jacqui Smith said the NEET crisis was a ‘moral outrage’ and called on employers to act as not just advisors but active partners in co-designing curricula, but also offering work placements and apprenticeships.
She emphasised the government’s £2.5 billion investment in young people through further education, apprenticeships, and new routes into the workforce – particularly for those on Universal Credit or out of work.
Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern, minister of skills, said: “What’s really important is that we have that range of opportunities for young people.
“There are two big challenges that I spend my time thinking about.
“One of them is, how do we make sure the skills are in place that employers need to be able to grow.
“For example, now we have a quarter of jobs where actually they are vacant because there aren’t the skills there for them.
“Secondly, how do we make sure that particularly young people have got these opportunities to learn and to work.
“There are a million young people across the country who aren’t in that position, and that is a waste of their talent, and it is a waste of the economic future.
“Which is why we’ve focused on what more we need to do to make sure that they get places in good colleges, that they get apprenticeships, and that they get new opportunities to work if they have been out of work or are on universal credit.
“We need employers not just as advisors but as active partners co-designing curriculum, offering work placements, supporting apprenticeships, and helping to shape the future workforce.”
