Young people and skills: what’s really missing?

Youth employment is one of the defining issues of our time. One million young people are not in employment, education or training, and the UK unemployment rate for the under-24s is among the highest in Europe. Meanwhile, the level of debt now facing graduates is leading them to question the value of further and higher education amid an increasingly tough job market.

Against this troubling backdrop, with its knock-on impact not just for young people’s careers, but also for organisations and the entire UK economy, CMI has published a new report, Bridging the gap: Supporting a new generation of leaders. It examines the forces that leave young people struggling to transition from education into the workplace, and then progress from their first career role. And it confirms that employers – and managers – have a key role to play in changing their fortunes. 

“Employers must stop treating early-career onboarding as a box-ticking HR exercise,” writes Ann Francke OBE CMgr CCMI, CMI’s chief executive, in her introduction to the report. “If you want to harness the innovation of a new generation, invest in their development and that of their managers to retain them and focus their fresh perspectives on the big strategic questions your organisation faces.”

Here are five key takeaways from the report. 

1. ‘Soft skills’ are core skills – and they’re lacking

On workplace skills, the data paints a concerning picture: 61% of managers agree that younger workers in their organisation are more likely to lack so-called ‘soft skills’ than other age groups, with 91% stating that their overall workforce performance is negatively affected by this gap. 

For example, managers report extremely low levels of competence among young people in innovation and creativity (with only 18% saying this exists “to a large extent”), while strikingly few rate young employees’ abilities in the following areas: communication (12%), team working (11%), flexibility and adaptability (10%), critical thinking and problem solving (8%), self-management (6%), initiative and self-direction (5%) and resilience (5%). 

When asked what skills young people must improve most, the most commonly cited were resilience, professionalism, clear communication and the capacity to accept and act on feedback. The term ‘soft skills’ is clearly unhelpful; all these are essential, foundational skills for developing leaders.