Covid19 impact: supporting young people today and tomorrow

Contents

Introduction 3

Tough times ahead 4

Adapting and delivering for young people 5

WorldSkills UK’s Five Point Action Plan 6

Next steps 8

Introduction

We, at WorldSkills UK, are thinking about how we can help young people both today and in the coming months and years to help power up a skills-led recovery and support the rebuilding of the UK economy, beyond the immediate public health crisis.

These are tough and uncertain times, and for young women and men looking to get their first step on the career ladder in the next few months and years, the outlook is challenging. Many young people have had their education and training unavoidably disrupted with little certainty about what the future holds. This is undoubtedly an unsettling time, at a point in their lives when they should be finding their feet, working out what to do next and thinking about career direction.

The government is working hard to protect employment against the COVID-19 crisis, but with the world economy set to shrink rapidly, a forecast recession seems inevitable and recent research and analyses have shown that its impacts will affect young people disproportionately. So alongside continuing to tackle slow productivity growth, adapting to technology change and plugging our skills gaps, we must stay focused on supporting the next generation so that they can play an active role in our economic recovery and, importantly, have a rewarding future to look forward to.

The UK will need highly-skilled and motivated young women and men across key sectors – public services, construction, engineering and science – to mitigate the impact of the crisis. We have all seen the vital role key skilled workers are playing to keep us safe and we need to do more to recognise the value of skilled work. WorldSkills UK is committed, through our experience of inspiring and developing excellence in skills, to rise to this challenge.

By working with our 1900 partners - hundreds of colleges, training providers, employers and sector skills bodies - we are in a strong position to help power the development of a “skills economy”. We will increase our efforts to champion the benefits of high quality apprenticeships and technical education and help more young people develop their skills set and mindset to ever higher standards so they stand the best chance of success in work and life.

The young women and men we support today will be the workforce of tomorrow, helping employers lead the charge towards recovery, future economic growth and prosperity for all. That’s why supporting young people right now is so crucial. Because when young people succeed, we all succeed.

Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann OBE WorldSkills UK CEO

“The UK will need highly-skilled and motivated young women and men across key sectors – public services, construction, engineering and science – to mitigate the impact of the crisis.”

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Tough times aheadThere has been a lot of research published recently about the economic challenges we face as a result of COVID-19. Three pieces of recent analysis spell out clearly some of the likely resulting challenges ahead for the labour market, jobs and young people, which have helped us at WorldSkills UK focus on how we help at this crucial time.

The Learning & Work Institute research, Coronavirus and the labour market: impacts and challenges, warns of “avoiding creating a “pandemic generation” of young people with poorer education and employment prospects.” The research states that young people are particularly vulnerable to the economic impact of coronavirus. Not only does it highlight that significant period of unemployment can have a scarring impact on young people’s long term employment and earnings prospects, and on their wellbeing, it also points to the risk that unequal access to online learning, careers advice and wider support networks further widens existing inequalities in education and employment outcomes. It recommends that “decisive action is needed to minimise the impact of the economic crisis on young people, and to support them to progress in learning and work.”

Meanwhile, research from The Resolution Foundation: Crystal balls vs rear-view mirrors, The UK labour market after coronavirus says that, in predicting an economic recession, “The young will bear the burden”. It states that, “We already know that younger workers have been most likely to lose their jobs in this crisis. More broadly, the initial impact of recessions tends to be hardest felt by those leaving education and entering the labour market in their midst…With over a million under-25s entering the labour market for the first time each year – peaking in the third quarter, when the economy will probably be only just starting to open up again – today’s young education leavers will pay a high price from the necessary public health measures being taken.”

And finally, research from Youth Futures Foundation, Young, vulnerable, and increasing – why we need to start worrying more about youth unemployment underlines that “Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and particular ethnic minorities are disproportionately likely to be NEET...” It says: “We now face the combination of a growth in young people falling out of the labour market and a likely recession as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, though we cannot know what shape the downturn will take. Closing the employment gap will require significant work... A collaborative approach across the public, private and voluntary sectors is urgently needed to ensure that young people who are facing the most disadvantage are not overlooked but instead get effective, evidence-based support into meaningful employment.”

Given these insights and challenges, it is now more important than ever that we focus on helping all young people get the best start in work and life.

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Adapting and delivering for young people We at WorldSkills UK have always worked to help young people thrive in their education and training – enhancing their skills set and mindset to help them accelerate their development. And we will continue to do so in the short- and long-term.

That is why we are refocusing in three ways our short-term efforts to make sure we can adapt to the current need for more digital careers advice and learning, while drawing on our long-established strength as a partnership organisation to ensure the impact of our programmes and our skills expertise reach as many young people as possible.

Firstly, we are increasing our online support for young people who are going through our national and international skills competitions training programmes. These are young women and men who are in work, on apprenticeships or about to start work. Preparation to compete nationally and internationally will undoubtedly help equip these young people for the technical and mental challenges that lie ahead. We will continue to develop their skillset and mindset to the highest possible levels with online and offline support, where possible, so they can grow and succeed in their careers.

Secondly, we are increasing our online advice and guidance for those not yet in work – who are in school or college – to help them make more informed choices about future career pathways and help both young people and their parents understand the full range of options that are available. We will be targeting online and offline resources at schools and colleges in disadvantaged areas to ensure we are engaging those who are hardest to reach, as well as increasing our efforts to encourage young women and men to make career choices that challenge gender stereotypes, and support more young people who are BAME, identify as LGBT or have a learning disability to take up apprenticeships and technical career routes.

Thirdly, we will be galvanising and drawing on the expertise of our established network of 1900 partners who are at the forefront of helping support the next generation. Across the UK, this includes hundreds of colleges, training providers and employers, sector skills bodies and organisations like NCFE, National Careers Service, Youth Employment UK, Education and Employers, Careers & Enterprise Company to further extend our reach and ensure our programmes have maximum impact for as many young people as possible.

And for the longer-term, we will continue to explore innovations to boost the quality of training for young people and their employers, by bringing global best practice in skills education and training back to the UK to continue to help power the development of a world-leading technical education sector. Boosting productivity, attracting inward investment and increasing international competitiveness will be key themes in the UK’s economic recovery and therefore access to highly skilled young women and men will remain part of the solution in addressing these challenges. That’s why we will continue to work with our partners globally on international benchmarking to help mainstream excellence in skills development and share these insights with our partners in governments, education and business at the forefront of economic development.

Our five-point action plan (see overleaf) sets out the specific actions we are taking right now. And we will continue to develop our thinking and adapt our response to how we can best support young people, as the public health situation develops and as the economic challenges ahead become clearer.

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“we will continue to explore innovations to boost the quality of training for young people and their employers”

WorldSkills UK’s Five Point Action Plan

Through our renewed focus on adapting and delivering for young people in the coming months, we are aiming to support nearly 200,000 young women and men plan for their future primarily through 5 key initiatives:

1Supporting schools and colleges across the country with online careers toolkits to help teachers better advise young people about

the benefits of choosing high quality skilled career routes – aiming to engage some 35,000 students;

2 Deploying more online careers advice role models – our alumni network of highly skilled individuals, who have achieved

success in their careers, will share their experience of work right now with 3,000 young people to inspire the next generation;

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3Working with partners to deliver online assessment to help students and apprentices compete virtually in our skills competitions to

ensure they don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance their current training with skills set and mindset development in national and international programmes. Some 3,000 apprentices and students are likely be supported in this way over the coming months;

4 Refocusing WorldSkills UK LIVE - the UK’s largest skills and careers event – to bring together employers, education, young

people and parents - to provide more careers advice, workshops, masterclasses and hands-on support to equip over 70,000 attendees to plan for the future and develop more digital outreach so more young people from across the UK can benefit; and

5 Driving forward the ‘WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence’, a major new initiative with our partner NCFE to give access and insights

into elite, world-class training methods to help some 40,000 young people across three years from disadvantaged backgrounds get the best possible quality training available to set them up for life.

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Next stepsWhile we will continue to evolve our thinking as the public health and economic context changes, we know that underpinning it all is a clear need to work with our partners to start preparing for a skills-led recovery and the development of a “skills economy” which rightly values high-quality apprenticeships, and technical education routes into skilled careers for all young people.

By doing so, we will help reset the national dialogue on the importance of skilled workers for the future success of our country.

And the next generation can play an active role. The young people we support today with advice, knowledge and skills, will be the workforce of tomorrow helping employers lead the charge towards recovery and economic growth for the prosperity of all.

Thank you to all our partners who are working hard with us to help shape a better future for more young people.

And if you are interested in finding out more about our work and getting involved, please email us on getintouch@worldskillsuk.org

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WorldSkills UK is registered in England at First Floor, 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SP. Charity number 1001586, company number 02535199, VAT registration number GB945610716

Getintouch@worldskillsuk.org