Out of work youngsters 'unemployable'

With so many young people looking for career development opportunities in the UK, one employment expert has claimed that some jobseekers are simply "unemployable".

Taking part in a recent BBC On The Money podcast, Lord Digby Jones, the former Confederation of British Industry boss, said that young people lack key employability skills.

Answering questions from presenter Declan Curry, he added: "I would submit to you, that about half of them are unemployable because actually, they are not functionally literate, they're not functionally numerate [and] they can't operate a computer."

He also explained that some young people are not in the habit of getting up and going to work and some believe the "pleasure of earning a living is entirely someone else's".

"A lot of young people are coming into the reservoir of employment, ill-equipped for a skills based society and I'm not talking rocket science. I'm just talking basic skills," he concluded.

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