Research by the Co-op has revealed that almost half (48 per cent) of all young people in the United Kingdom think that they’ll need to leave the area where they live in order to find work.
The survey by the Co-op, which canvassed the opinions of 2,000 young people aged between 10 and 25 years of age, found that almost 3 in 10 (28 per cent) young people in the UK don’t believe that there are enough viable work opportunities in the place where they live.
Close to half (47 per cent) of the children and young adults also added that they expected that ‘financial pressures’ would be one of their top five challenges in the next year.
So it would appear that children as young as 10 are aware of the cost of living crisis and are concerned that it will affect them personally.
Giving their personal take on the current situation for young people in the UK, Rae Daly, a student in Year 10, said:
“I know that if I were to stay in my hometown that my future career would be a lot more difficult to achieve as there’s a lack of opportunities for me. I’m about to start my exams and already I’m having to think beyond them and where I’ll need to move to in a few years’ time, adding even more worry. The government needs to give more focus to young people my age and provide better opportunities to help us with our future.”
In the 16-25 year old group, 29 per cent said that the rising cost of living will make it more difficult to secure work, whilst 21 per cent thought that the same factor would have a negative impact on their career ambitions in the next twelve months.
45 per cent of respondents over the age of 21 also believed that rising costs will additionally have a negative impact on their mental health.
Commenting on the results of the survey, Co-op’s interim CEO, Shirine Khoury-Haq, said:
“With young people, bearing the brunt of yet another national crisis, now more than ever, we need to take urgent action to tackle inequality of opportunity, levelling up for young people everywhere and to look from a business community as to how we can support.
“Young people are the DNA and future of this country, aspiring to so much – but as the research shows while talent is spread across every community, opportunity is not. Too many feel that owing to accessibility of opportunities and the rising cost of living they won’t have the chance to achieve their aspirations.
“At the Co-op we believe that young people should hope for better and have the fairy tale ending they so rightly deserve. That’s why we have a number of youth-led programmes, including our Young Members’ Board, our innovative virtual work experience programme and our work with the Peer Action Collective, all helping to give young people fairer access to opportunities and come together to make their voices heard.”
“Also, our Co-op Academies Trust is already working in many of the Education Investment Areas highlighted by the Government as needing more support,” added Ms Khoury-Haq.
Reacting to the survey’s findings the Co-op is launching a ‘Virtual Work Experience’ programme in partnership with Springpod, a career guidance service based in London.
Over the next three years, the new programme will take on 26,000 young people from disadvantaged communities to help them become more employable for a wider range of different careers.
Springpod’s Chief Executive Officer, Sam Hyams, said: “It’s great to be partnered with the Co-op to provide equal access to young people for work experience, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds who would often not be provided with such chances. We’re excited to run the programme and highlight the roles available within the business and give students the ability to learn about how they can shape a career in this sector.”
If you are interested in the Virtual Work Experience programme then you can search for the latest opportunities on Springpod’s website here.
And, if you’d like to know more about the findings by the Co-op, you can read the full report in their news release here.
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