The Blank CV
Posted on: May 18, 2011
- In: Community | HR | Recruitment | Responsibility | Values
- 2 Comments
Last week the Prince’s Trust came to give a presentation to Informa’s divisional HR directors and corporate social responsibility committee, as we have recently become a patron of their organisation. It was an inspiring and interactive discussion with lots of ideas of how individuals and companies can get involved and make a difference.
Let us never become immune to the shocking statistics –
- around 2 million young people (16-24 year olds) in the UK are growing up in unemployed households, in many cases second, third or even fourth generation unemployed
- 10% of young people leave school in the UK with absolutely nothing: no qualifications, no work experience, little if anything in the way of interests, hobbies or skills…their CV is blank and their self-worth and sense of value negligible at best
- Youth unemployment costs the UK £22m every week
The Prince’s Trust has helped over 600,000 young people since it was set up in 1976 and focuses on providing real support to those who have under-achieved at school, are long-term unemployed, have been in trouble with the law or have grown up in care.
They have a huge range of initiatives for companies and individuals to get involved with…if you want to learn more please do check out their website.
I can only imagine how inaccessible the world of work must seem when your CV is truly blank…with our collective HR, business and recruitment expertise, I would sincerely hope we can start to make a tangible difference.
2 Responses to "The Blank CV"
May 18, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Couldn’t agree more! Qualifications are nothing without the right attitude and commitment to work hard. We only need to look at entrepreneurs across the world to see that many just didn’t fit with our often narrowly defined perspective of what is academically acceptable or not.
Options are what young people (indeed all people need). I find myself forever trying to get friends/family/even those people going through consultation, to try and not been so constrained with the structures we have built up around ourselves. If you want to get into fashion there are a million different ways of doing it and just because you don’t have a GCSE Maths and English doesn’t mean you won’t be the fashion industries next big star. Give the youth a chance!
Alison this sounds like a fantastic connection being built.
The HR Juggler 
May 18, 2011 at 12:33 pm
One day, someone, somewhere with a brain will re-introduce the YTS scheme – or a version of it. Putting 16 year olds into absolute trainee roles on minimum wage, with an agenda for training.
School’s knows who these kids will be, at 15 years old, and a YTS structure could be guiding the under-educated into career choices in genuine fields. They’l be grateful.
My best pal joined Barclays on the YTS scheme following 3x GCSE passes, on £37 a week in 1988. He was a Director of Barclays by 24 years old, the youngest in their history at the time.
Bad education doesn’t HAVE to mean bad attitude.
These guys need a ray of hope…