Friday 1 May 2009

Solutions for unemployed young people - gap year

People who work with youth say they have been working on a range of ideas to address rising unemployment among young people - including the idea of a gap year.

New Zealand Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development (NZAAHD) executive officer Sarah Helm said youth unemployment was ordinarily four times the rate of overall unemployment.

“That makes young people very vulnerable right now, and will mean a number of young people leaving the education system will find it hard to enter the workforce.” NZAAHD had asked its members to come up with a range of innovative ideas for the National-led Government to consider.

“We came to the conclusion that leaving young people on a very low unemployment benefit was less than ideal, particularly when in the long-term New Zealand still needs a skilled workforce to support its ageing population.” Additionally the non-profit sector is in a time of immense pressure, with increased demand and less funding available, she said.

“So getting young people into the voluntary sector is a brilliant way of giving young people valuable, meaningful work experience and a skill-development opportunity, while helping meet the needs of a pressured sector,” she said.

One way of achieving this is to set up a gap year scheme, where young people spend a year working in an agency before going on to other education or work.

“Incentives would need to be given to the young people however, and support given to the agencies taking them. Like with all volunteers they need recognition, support, and some reward,” Ms Helm said.

Similar schemes were operating in other countries, such as the United States, where an ‘Americorp’ programme provided a gap year. It built an appreciation of on-going giving and volunteering beyond the actual year of service.

NZAAHD had also recommended a range of other interventions, including: • temporarily subsidised jobs to encourage employers to take young people on • increased support for the existing ‘Youth Transitions’ service, which helps young people into work or back into school/training • more training, apprenticeship and education places “None of these interventions are a fix-all. We have structural unemployment.

Young people are at the bottom of the labour market, so they will be impacted on more severely.” “We support the Government in making decisive targeted interventions to help young people,” Ms Helm said.

New Zealand Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development (NZAAHD

ENDS

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