Teenagers told to get jobs for the summer
Young people should swap studying for work to learn vital skills, says minister
A “DRASTIC” decline in the number of teenagers taking holiday jobs is leaving the nation’s youth ill-prepared for the workplace, the Work and Pensions Secretary warns today.
Esther Mcvey says holiday jobs give young people “essential skills” that make them more employable and better paid in adulthood.
Since 1997 the proportion of 16 and 17-year-olds with a part-time job has more than halved, from 42 per cent to 18 per cent, representing a “missed opportunity” for a generation.
Today Ms Mcvey launches a drive to get Britain’s young people working by placing 20,000 summer jobs on the Government’s Find a Job website.
Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, Ms Mcvey says a “cultural shift” has led to young people becoming “increasingly focused on education and training solely” with most shunning the chance to earn extra money and get vital experience.
Government-funded research suggests that schools and universities often discourage students from taking on work, believing it detracts from their studies. Pressure to get good grades and the rising cost of university education mean parents are less likely to force their children to find jobs, but Ms Mcvey argues that summer jobs and Saturday work should “complement, not compete with, education”.
Statistics show that teenagers and students who earn as they learn are far more likely to get a job when they finish their education, and tend to earn 12 to 15 per cent more than if they had not worked part-time.
Ms Mcvey says summer jobs build “soft skills” such as customer service, problem solving, time management and juggling priorities. She says ministers must “make the case” for summer and Saturday jobs because they are “connected to having a successful future”.
Britain lags far behind countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark, which have more than twice as many teenagers in part-time work as the UK.
Girls are more likely to combine their studies with work than boys, with more than 20 per cent of British girls doing both, compared with less than 15 per cent of boys.
Ms Mcvey discloses that her own experience of combining waitressing with studying expanded her social circle and made her decide she wanted to work for the BBC rather than pursuing her original plan of becoming a barrister. She tells teenagers: “Everyone has to start somewhere and these first job experiences can have the most impact. It won’t necessarily be your ideal one but it’s a step towards finding out what you actually want to do.”
The campaign is backed by employers such as Center Parcs, Bourne Leisure and PGL, an adventure holiday firm.
Ms Mcvey launches the campaign today at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest, where she will meet Steve Robinson, its deputy general manager, who started there as a sixth former 25 years ago.