Today there is over 14% youth unemployment in the UK, and yet we have a skills gap. We take a quick look at how organisations can mobilise their people to help tackle this, and what Gen Z are really looking for.

1. Hello

2. A society of contradictions
922,000 people classed as Not in Education, Employment or Training
One of the highest percentages of low-paid workers in the UK
9 million people with low numeracy skills
GCSE achievement relatively stable
More students studying computing
Maths is one of only two of the 48 subjects where boys perform better
than girls at C grade and above
From 2008 to 2014, significant rise in university students studying
maths, biological sciences, business and computing degrees
Yet there are reported skills gaps, esp engineering, tech, science.
Employers complain about the lack of ‘employability’ skills.

3. Disadvantage can start at a young age
By the age of 5, children from poorer backgrounds
are likely to be an average of 19 months behind on
school readiness
Children from affluent neighborhoods are 9 times
more likely to get into one of the top 13 universities
in the UK
Three years after graduation, those who attended
fee-paying schools, earn around £4,500 a year more
than their state school counterparts

4. A recent report showed that despite 30
years of investment and various initiatives,
a majority of the profession still come from
families classed as ‘managerial or
professional’. The numbers of women are
rising at entry level and could be in the
majority in the next five years. But there is
still a lack of women at the top of the
profession.
This is the medical profession.

5. What is the responsibility of employers?

6. Make it more than a recruitment issue
Some of the world's largest companies only
spend "a fraction" of their corporate social
responsibility (CSR) on education, according to
the Varkey Foundation.
The research commissioned as part of the
Business Backs Education campaign found that
global Fortune 500 businesses only spend
$2.6bn (13%) of their $19.9bn CSR budgets on
education related activities.

7. Get people to volunteer on education
rather than simply painting schools

8. You can’t overestimate
the power of your brand
and support to help
push the agenda

9. Empower young people
in your organisation and beyond
to do something for their generation.

10. Don’t just be a recruiter…
Who I am now isn't who I might be in
the future, and the education and
recruitment system needs to give us
the space and time to make the right
career choices.
Abigail Lane is studying her AS-Levels at a school
in Hertfordshire.

11. But how do you connect?
My generation, Gen-Z, has a strong
social focus. Anything our friends, our
family, and our celebrity idols do is
important for us to know about.
Sophie Lang

14. Some interesting trends
This is a generation that has grown up in the height of the recession, where social
media and digital technology are extensions of themselves, and whose
relationships with brands and organisations are driven by engagement. These are
some of the trends that seem to define Gen Z, albeit some of the them seem
stranger than others:
Social impact
Entrepreneurs
Connected
Independent workers
Worry about economy
Home-cooked food
Less active
Brand loyalty
Family
Visual

15. The Truth Foundation

16. They don’t like to judge, so messages about smokers
being bad won’t work, especially as fewer people
smoke (there’s no desire to turn smokers into a
persecuted minority). What does? Appeals to their
power and influence. “We offer them the opportunity
to be part of a generation that could do something
amazing: they could end smoking.”