It’s hard to believe that my son has only two years left at school. He is very lucky in that he already has a good idea of what he wants to do on leaving school and has started to find out more about the different universities he could apply to. However, as part of his current school year, he has to find a company that is willing to take him on for 2 weeks work experience preferably in a relevant field of work. This is not so easy. Given the current economic climate, companies do not have the manpower to supervise a 16 year old with no real work experience, even just for two weeks, so this proving to be a great insight for him into the realities of trying to find a job.
I was then given this link to an article from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12286264 which states that “…one in five UK university leavers who entered the labour market failed to find a job last year, as graduate unemployment reached its highest level since 1995, government figures show.”
This lead me to do a quick search on Google where I read that across Europe as a whole the average unemployment rate among those with a college degree and aged between 25 and 34 is currently 6.2% and rising. Wow, how are we as parents supposed to encourage our children on to further education or into employment?
This got me thinking. What advice can I give my son and others like him that would help them to find their first job?
And this is the source of this month’s issue of my Inspirational Toolkit which you can read be clicking on the link: issue 14 – 7 tips to getting your first job
Item 1 has proved particularly useful to my son and he has surprised even himself at finding out the exposure he has already had to team work and using his organisational and communication skills, albeit limited.
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