GMCVO Talent Match Sessions
September 13th 2012
Barriers identified
1 General barriers relating to all young people – NEET and far from employment
Barriers are across the spectrum of society, the employment market and young people. They include perceptions and misunderstandings, and bureaucratic and cultural systems as well as skill sets and gaining experience. The barriers are sub-divided below (with the ones mentioned most listed first):
a Young people
- Lack of confidence/self esteem
- Lack of ‘soft skills’ which support employment, eg social behaviour, communication, being in a routine, time management, recruitment
- Lack of knowledge of the world of work (including narrow potential career outlook)
- Lack of aspiration or unrealistic aspirations (especially financial)
- Lack of work experience or have had a poor experience
- Peer influence and/or parental pressure
- Lack of motivation
- Over or under-qualified, some qualifications are not useful
- Cost of employment – travel, work clothes
- Poor mental health
- Not understanding what they have to contribute
- Multiple barriers that compound the difficulties a young people faces
- Other responsibilities, eg caring roles take priority
- Lack of access to IT and having IT skills
b Employers and the employment market
- Lack of meaningful employment opportunities including entry level jobs, work experience, apprenticeships
- Unrealistic expectations
- Geographical factors – not local enough, discrimination by area
- Application processes complex and off-putting, eg competency tests, job descriptions, person specs
- Poor information and signposting to advice & support services
- Approach to part-time jobs
- Duplicated delivery, too many programmes/confusing pathways
- Competitive market at a time of cuts
- Lack of tolerance of young people with chaotic lifestyles – need more flexible programme & pace
- Lack of flexibility
c Society
- Poor perceptions of young people
- Generational worklessness
- Benefits system – can trap, financial gap if jobs don’t pay well
- Lack of support networks
- Transport options (hard to travel to work)
- Poor housing/homelessness
- Lack of role models
- Approach of schools to employment
2 Specific barriers for particular groups of young people
These were focussed on less in the sessions, the following were identified:
Young women
- Lack of role models
BME groups
- Low level of English language skills
- General barriers intensified
- Not feeling safe/comfortable
Young people with a learning disability
- Lack of supported employment
Ex-offenders
- Criminal records
Single parents
- Fear of being worse off in work
- Unaffordable childcare
- Social isolation, low confidence
- Juggling work/education with demands of raising young children alone
- Unfamiliar with using formal childcare
- Lack of flexible job opportunities
- Feel judges by professionals
3 Specific barriers to a programme such as Talent Match
Only a couple of barriers were raised:
- Perception of it being a requirement for benefits rather than something that may help
- Past (poor) experience of employment support
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