Lifetime of unemployment looming for younger generation

BELFAST BRIEFING: Despite efforts by the Prince's Trust, many are offering to work for free to get a start

CELEBRATIONS OVER excellent exam results could be short-lived for school leavers in Northern Ireland.

While the majority of the 23,000-plus students plan to go to third-level education, some may be pinning their hopes on securing their first proper pay packet. But according to youth charity the Prince’s Trust, their dreams could be shattered by economic realities.

Latest labour market statistics show youth unemployment is one-third higher today than when the Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998. Official government figures also suggest there was a sharp jump in the number of people claiming jobless benefits in the North last month. It rose to 60,400 – the highest level in more than a decade.

One of the reasons why the claimant count spiked in July was the knock-on effect of school leavers joining the dole queue. It is estimated there are roughly 18,972 young people under the age of 25 currently claiming jobless-related benefits in the North.

The Prince’s Trust says that, on average, one in every five young people is jobless but this can rise to one in three in certain areas of Belfast and other cities which suffer high levels of long-term unemployment.

The charity says there has been a huge increase in the number of school leavers and, more recently, graduates opting to work unpaid just to get their foot on the employment ladder. The trust fears that the class of 2011 could end up as the first generation that begins their careers working for free.

Ian Jeffers, director of the Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland, said the severity of the economic slowdown in the region means graduates are now competing for jobs that a couple of years ago would been offered to school leavers.

“If they can afford it, and in many cases even if they cannot, graduates are prepared to work for free just to get experience in the workplace,” he said.

“We are also seeing strong evidence that some graduates are prepared to go in at any level to get a job. The fact that graduates are snapping up entry-level jobs has, in a way, distorted the market place because it means there are just not the same opportunities for school leavers.

“If employers have the chance to employ a graduate over a school leaver, in most cases they are happy to take the person with the higher qualification.

On a sliding scale, this means that young people who do not have the more formal qualifications are finding it harder to get work or even have the opportunity to get started in a job.”

The Prince’s Trust runs a number of programmes aimed at helping young people “who want to get their lives working”.

Last year, in Northern Ireland, it helped more than 3,000 young people who had little or no formal qualifications get experience and skills which, in turn, assisted them move into education, training and employment.

Catriona (19), from Belfast, is taking part this week in its “Get Started” programme. She is hoping it will give her the boost she needs. “Everyone needs a job – I’ve applied for lots of jobs but I always get letters back saying I don’t meet the criteria, I know there are people with degrees and masters going for jobs in call centres and I don’t have those qualifications. But I am committed to doing better for myself and getting a good job so that I have a future.”

The Prince’s Trust is just one of a list of charities and agencies working to find solutions for young people without a job. But the question is whether their efforts can keep pace with the velocity of the problem.

So how does Northern Ireland tackle the problem before it becomes a crisis and a whole generation is condemned to the misery of being unemployed?

Conall McDevitt, the SDLP’s South Belfast member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, says a good start would be to look at the local education system.

“Too many business leaders and educationalists believe there is a disconnect between our regional education and skills policy and our economic needs.”

Jeffers says: “For starters we need to believe in our young people. Then we need the structure of the local economy to change. We need a bigger private sector, particularly more SMEs which can create good proper jobs.”