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