The number of teenagers with Saturday jobs has dropped. Young people do not acquire any experience for their CVs – a crucial step towards getting full-time work. The proportion of teenagers combining part-time jobs with school or college has slumped from 40% in the 1990s to around 20% now, according to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), a government agency. Latest figures show that only A __________ in 1997.
The trend is not just recession-related, but the result of an increasing expectation B __________ well as a falling number of Saturday jobs, according to the report. Many of the jobs that young people do, such as bar work, are in long-term decline, and are forecast to decline further over the next decade.
"Recruiters place significant emphasis on experience … C __________," the report says. Word of mouth is the most common way to get a job, D __________ young people are unable to build up informal contacts, it adds.
Ms. Todd, a commissioner at the UKCES, said: "There's more emphasis on doing well at school, young people are finding less time to do what they would have done a few years ago. "I think it's also the changing structure of the labour market. Retail is still a big employer, E __________. As a consequence, we need to think about how we get young people the work experience they need."
A new initiative to send employees into state schools to talk about their careers was also launched recently. The scheme, Inspiring the Future, is meant to give state schoolchildren access to the kind of careers advice that private schools offer. The deputy prime minister said: "The power of making connections F __________ and can be life-changing."