Ladies and gentlemen, rejoice for our prayers have been answered: a major trade industry body says we can just dump our problems on the younger generation.
Well all right that’s not exactly what was said, but it’s what it kind of breaks down as. In particular the industry body formerly known as PCG – know recently rebranded as the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed – says that according to its research the skills shortage – especially in London – can be taken care of nicely by simply relying on younger Brits who are moving into self-employment fields such as freelancing, working as an umbrella company contractor or founding their own small business start up.
Nearly half of all firms in the capital are convinced that London is suffering from the skills gap at the moment, according to the latest surveys. Two out of every three London companies reported directly finding it difficult in sourcing highly skilled candidates, and the worst off are the creative and information technology sectors. With all this dire news coming to light IPSE chief executive, Chris Bryce, remarked that with an 18 per cent unemployment rate for young Londoners there’s no way this should be occurring right now.
Bryce said that there needs to be a serious effort on the part of schools and universities to impart the proper skills needed for younger Brits to take up the positions that are so sorely needed in the capital. It didn’t matter to the chief executive if these younger Brits were permanent employees or contract workers – London needs shedloads more of them to be provided the education they need to get themselves out of unemployment and helping to rebuild the economy of the capital.
Of course this is all well and good to say, but how are we supposed to go about implementing this? For education on this level you would need a massive overhaul of the educational system, and that requires buckets of cold, hard cash to bring in a new curriculum and educators that can handle the necessary instruction. Last time I checked the amount of money available to local authorities earmarked for education is about the same amount of water you can fit in a thimble. We’re going to provide some serious help to the next generation if we expect them to bail us out!
