Just over a year ago, I wrote a blog piece on the current state of graduate recruitment and who was in a position to help. A year on the situation for inexperienced graduates, and young people in general, is still difficult:

- European unemployment figures are critically high at 23.5% - with peaks of 55.7% in Spain and 58.4% in Greece. This means that around 5.6 million people under the age of 25 are jobless in Europe.

- Worldwide, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates over 75 million young people are currently looking for work and they expect this unemployment rate of almost 13% to rise.

- Alongside this over the last three years, graduate job creation has been overestimated. In the last year, High Fliers Research stated that job creation would grow by 6.4% when it actually shrunk by 0.8%.

- A recent survey of 2,100 young people show that one in four believe their employment prospects have been “permanently damaged” by the double-dip recession.

 Of those that have found employment 45% of young people say that their current jobs are not related to their studies and more than half view the jobs as interim and are looking to leave.

But the awareness of this situation and its impact on each country’s economy and young people’s job prospects is gradually growing and at times so are the efforts being made to help.

One of the most recent of these efforts was undertaken on a global scale by Adecco with their Way to Work initiative which led 10,000 Adecco employees in over fifty countries out on to the streets on the 30^th April to offer support and guidance to young job seekers and school leavers. With an estimated half a million people reached over fifty countries Adecco Group’s CEO, Patrick de Maeseneire commented on what he witnessed on the streets leading Adecco Way to Work activities at Brussels main station and in Aalst, Gent and Bruges in Belgium:

“The positive echo I received from the Adecco Way to Work™ street day here in Brussels and the three other Belgian cities I visited confirmed that we’re doing the right thing. Young people have a clear need for advice, information and support in their job search. I’m happy that we made a contribution to a young generation that is struggling to find work.”

Adecco are responding to findings that 54% of unemployed young people want more support and help in their efforts to find a job. By offering career advice, guidance and free training workshops on the streets, in universities and at schools, alongside an interactive website detailing guidance via a range of media including videos and infographics, Adecco are set up to offer graduates the support they need preparation-wise to make their first step onto the professional career ladder.

Alongside this – as part of the Adecco Way to Work program – Adecco has also launched Around the World in 80 jobs, giving eight lucky jobseekers the chance to try their hand at a range of careers all over the world. The scheme is designed to show that life and work experiences can evolve alongside one another, creating not only memories that last a life-time but a career that will be inspiring throughout it.

Schemes like these provide young people with the essential advice they need to reveal their best attributes during a recruitment process. But what about those without skills that match workplace requirements? Part 3 of the Unemployable Graduate series will consider the growing skills gap that’s plaguing the worlds employers and what can be done to help…

[Sourced from: http://www.mysteryapplicant.com/2013/06/11/the-unemployable-graduat...]