Unemployment: Young People

Lord Chadlington Excerpts

Thursday 17th January 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Chadlington]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the use of online tools, including social media, to combat youth unemployment.

[Lord Chadlington]

My Lords, there will be no argument in this House that to have 945,000 16 to 24 year-olds—roughly six times the population of Oxford—out of work in the United Kingdom is a blight on our society. Youth unemployment is 20.3%: 100,000 of these young people have been out of work for more than two years; 266,000 for more than 12 months; and 436,000 for more than six months. One new graduate in every five available for work is unemployed and 36% of recent graduates are employed in lower skilled jobs. A YouGov poll commissioned by the independent Million Jobs campaign, with which I am involved—and I declare the interest—revealed that voters considered youth unemployment, behind the economy and immigration, to be the third most important issue facing the country, and 80% consider government policy to be ineffective.

Work builds families, affirms personal values and binds communities together. Being out of work for long periods impacts health and well-being. Youth unemployment cost the Exchequer more last year than the entire further education budget for 16 to 19 year-olds in England. The digital world, particularly the social media, seems to be an ideal platform to reach out to these young people in their own language and medium, motivating and informing them about employment opportunities. Online tools are how 16 to 24 year-olds communicate and keep abreast of events: 82% of young people use the internet to look for advice and information, and 95% of 16 to 20 year-olds and 74% of 21 to 24 year-olds have used Facebook in the past four weeks.

The digital economy, with which these young people have such facility, is what many businesses, particularly SMEs, are demanding—20% want a web designer, 12% see e-marketing as key to growth and 10% want help with customer management systems. More than three-quarters of businesses acknowledge that young people have these digital skills in abundance. Some 90% of the young unemployed tell us that they can use social media to promote an idea or cause. Nearly 70% can design a web page, 20% develop an app, and many are confident at coding or working with databases. Yet less than 25% of businesses will offer these young people a first-time job or training opportunity. O2 estimates that the unused digital skills of the young unemployed are worth some £6.7 billion to the British economy. Can it really be beyond the wit of government and man to bring together these skills with the digital needs of business?

However, many young unemployed have no skills to apply for work. Jobs Network—a site which colleagues and I have developed; again, I declare my interest—enables those leaving an individual school or university to access advice and help from alumni and from local businesses providing work experience. It provides help in preparing a CV, interview techniques, practical mentoring and career advice. Schemes such as this have real scalability and could be rolled out across schools throughout the United Kingdom.

The Government recognise the importance of online communications. Gov.uk is an excellent source of general information; Universal Jobmatch is the Jobcentre Plus online service; and Plotr and FutureYou are excellent first steps. However, despite this, we are not maximising online potential. Most government-run and funded initiatives are patchy, ill co-ordinated and not geared to what young people want, but rather geared to what government wants to provide.

At Million Jobs, the unemployed tell us that they want an online one-stop jobs shop that provides a complete service, including mentoring. They are looking for a national equivalent to our Jobs Network. Plotr shows some promise of providing this but does not have mentoring and networking capabilities. Research suggests that this and other government-funded sites appear to be too patronising in tone and too basic in content. Every government employment initiative has its own website but they are not co-ordinated, one is not linked to another and they are boring and lack focus. The coalition Government inherited 750 public sector websites, which demonstrates the extent of waste and confusion when it comes to an online co-ordination strategy.

Lessons can be learnt by considering successful initiatives in the private sector. O2’s online campaign, Think Big, has been a success because from the first visit it is fun and engaging, and its success shows the benefit of sustained and integrated promotion, with 4,200 Twitter followers and an ongoing editorial press campaign. Similarly, Livity, a youth-engagement agency, works with young people to create innovative new campaigns. Clients such as Google, Roundhouse and the NHS receive a unique insight into young minds, and in return Livity’s young people get excellent training and employment opportunities.

Some of the government-run sites are impossible to use. Fewer than 10% of student-loan applications are fully transacted online because of the complexity and frustration involved.

The private sector also recognises that there is an inherent contradiction in the way that social media work. Most people use social media to communicate and engage with and mobilise each other. It is therefore very much a bottom-up way of communicating. Anything that suggests top-down control will, by its very nature, deter already disillusioned young people. In a recent discussion about this anomaly with the Department for Work and Pensions this difficulty was confirmed. It has piloted 10 Facebook pages that have not met expectations.

There is a need for the social-media drive to be co-ordinated, and to interact with young people through channels that they use and have established themselves. Real attention must be paid to mentoring. Of course, that is where Jobs Network succeeds, by linking school leavers and university graduates to mentors in their local communities. This approach is supported by a recent report on youth unemployment. Compared with young people who sought no career advice, those who had discussed job opportunities with four or more employers were almost twice as likely to report having a good idea of the knowledge and skills needed to do a job, and they are more than twice as confident about their ability to find a good job too.

Over the past 30 years the UK has had an average of some 500,000 young unemployed people. Online and social networking provides a unique avenue by which we can reduce this horrendous waste of human talent and energy. So I have two big questions for the Government. First, how do they expect to link the online skills of the young to the needs of business?

Secondly, how can the Government develop a coherent online strategy that achieves at least five things? The first is a recognition that online communications require a bottom-up and not a top-down structure. Secondly, the tone of online communications, if they are not to be ridiculed or ineffective, cannot be patronising. Thirdly, with so many government initiatives being taken, they need to be co-ordinated and focused. Fourthly, there is much to be learnt from the way that the private sector has developed its own initiatives in this area. Finally, investing real money in getting the young into work will save the Exchequer billions of pounds, help keep our families and local communities together, and prevent this young generation being a lost generation. Can the Minister please take each of these points in turn and outline the Government’s attitude and policy towards them?