Steps to Help Young People s Careers

A few weeks ago, there was an interesting discussion by the EY (part of Ernst & Young Global Limited)'s panellists, about young people's opportunties:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acgXNOcj-z0&index=14&list=PL4JSMaUVcSC3U15b7zOTKOyhb-WaEeOC3

And putting the panellists' advice together, I would say that what they have said, confirms the following steps, which could be taken to help young people's careers.

• Young people need mentors, whether they are planning to be apprentices, or students alike. They need someone who is experienced and wise, to listen to what they want, and then point them in the right direction.
• Business start ups are a great way to create opportunities, both for young entrepreneurs, and for NEET's (young people not in education or training), who are looking for careers. I have believed this for a long time: and the social marketing agency mentioned in the clip above is a perfect example, which is great to see.
• Apprenticeships are clearly the best way to combine learning with hands on industry experience, and they should be fully supported in all aspects of higher education.
• Young people should be allowed to take part in the process for creating opportunities for themselves. Youth Parliaments in politics are one example, and likewise, we need more local young entrepreneur networks, and direct feedback from youth committees, to shape apprenticeships, so that young people are able to get the best out of them.

All young people deserve opportunity, and these steps can go a long way to help the opportunities of students, apprentices, and NEETs alike. 

Centralised Tests Save Time

While job hunting, I have noticed that a number of employment agencies and prospective employers, require the same standard tests to be taken, to assess candidates' skills. These include such subjects as Word Processing, Excel skills, numeracy and literacy tests. But although all of these tests are perfectly reasonable, it seems inefficient, to ask candidates to repeat the same tests, again and again, for every agency or employer that they go to.

And so, I would like to propose a measure that will streamline recruitment processes, and save the candidates valuable time in the process: centralised tests. Like a standard certificate qualification, a candidate would simply go into a central database, (such as Outlook online), take the test, and the results of the test would be stored on that database. A cloud platform run by Google or Microsoft would be a perfect place for such test results to be stored; as agencies from around the world, would have access to them.

Candidates would, of course, be able to log on, for refresher tests, every few months, or perhaps annually; so that any new skills were added to their 'profile' in this way. But very much like the info on LinkedIn, employers would be able to access and read prospective candidates' info, without having to ask them to take the same standard tests again.

So a 'certificate' in Word Processing, Excel skills; numeracy and literacy, could save both candidates and employers vital time; and make recruitment as a whole, more efficient.