Employment figures published today reveal 1.02 million young people unemployed, down 17,000 from last quarter’s figures. However, with a third of graduates in lower-skilled jobs and hundreds of thousands of new graduates poised to hit the labour market this summer, there is potential for rapid deterioration in these employment figures. Commenting on today’s figures, leading graduate internship provider, Inspiring Interns believes there is still much work to do in combating youth unemployment.
The currently saturated job market means fresh graduates are not only competing with others leaving university this summer but with previous graduates with one year’s experience under their belts.
As graduates find themselves trapped in this ‘need experience to get a job, need a job to get experience’ vicious circle; it has become increasingly vital for them to acquire meaningful work experience.
Inspiring Interns Communications Director Andrew Scherer, who began his working life as an intern for Inspiring and is the author of Brilliant Intern, believes that internships are the perfect model to get graduates into meaningful work.
“Graduates are finding that they simply cannot compete in the current jobs market without experience, irrespective of the academic results they’ve achieved or the university they’ve attended. An internship gives them the chance to learn practical skills which will impress potential employers, as well as make useful industry contacts and even earn themselves full-time work.”
Inspiring Intern Alex Kenzie works as an Analytics Intern for one of the UK’s fastest growing media agencies. He had this to say about life after graduation and his internship experience:
“After graduating from university I went travelling for 6 months. On returning from my travels I worked part-time for 5 months at Hotel Chocolat. I used this time to start applying on and off for jobs but had no idea what I wanted to do.
I have learnt a lot during my time at the company and feel this opportunity has helped me realise my career path. I have had the opportunity to work with some high-profile clients use and apply a variety of different programmes which will be valuable when applying for jobs in the future.”
