In this podcast, Philippa Lamb talks to some young people who have benefited from training schemes available to young people who are unemployed and to some enlightened employers who give them a chance.
Katerina Rudiger, Skills Policy Advisor, gives the CIPD perspective on the calculation of youth unemployment and the merit of the schemes available. Later Katerina explains that the CIPD is keen to support Government in their endeavour to break the cycle of youth unemployment and has produced guidance notes for employers. The link for these can be found below.
FA, taken on by Transport for London, tells us how his life is back on track and he is filled with enthusiasm and plans for his future. Listen to his story……
Then we turn to FA’s boss to hear how Transport for London supports young people by offering them all sorts of learning and employment opportunities, including apprenticeships. Jen Oakley, TfL’s Development Schemes Manager, says these schemes are beneficial to both the students and to TfL and the training is no pushover either. Listen to Jen describe the tasks students are given from day one and how they can lead to graduate placements. Jen outlines the pre-interview help that the organisation gives both on their website and on site, to young people who have never been in the workplace or had an interview before.
Philippa observes that there are likely to be challenges for organisations willing to run these schemes. Hilton Hotels employ 25,000 people worldwide and has ambitious plans to open 90 more hotels by 2013. Hilton is offering 100 placements and is signed to the Government’s Academies initiative plus its own initiative for aspiring chefs. Zareena Brown, HR Director for the UK and Ireland, explains the business case for the company and the advantages given by making the extra effort to overcome these challenges. Zareena says that the popularity of the scheme has spread by word of mouth and is a reflection of the opportunities it offers to young people.
Philippa goes to the Hilton on Park Lane, London, to meet some apprentices. Listen to Sam Leatherby, Jordan Cleary and Joe Mc Manigan explain how lucky they have been to get onto the scheme and are their plans to take these opportunities to develop rewarding careers in hospitality and catering.
Philippa wonders if, having made an effort to train these young people, they might leave and take their skills to other companies. Zareena says that this tends not to happen with the ongoing, committed development opportunities the company has in place and Jen Oakley agrees: it is not an issue for TfL either.
CIPD’s Katerina observes that these apprenticeship schemes are often more advantageous to employers than to employees, a fact backed up by workplace attitude surveys done by these companies, which show high levels of employee engagement reflected by a place in the Sunday Times Best Employers award for the Hilton Hotels Corporation.
Useful links and further information
Internships that work - a guide for employers was mentioned in the podcast
As a member of CIPD you can access the HR Communities website, where you can discuss any problem situations and potential mine-fields pf employment law and just about anything else linked to HR and training.
In July, CIPD launched a 12-month mentoring pilot pairing young jobseekers with HR professionals, which we are running in conjunction with our Coventry and Warwickshire branch.
Our CIPD Comment and insight pages have a discussion on youth and the workplace
The Department for Work and Pensions has started a campaign called Get Britain Working.
Next month, join us to list to a new podcast - How can communicating the value of pensions make a real difference to employees and employers?