Nice work
(if you can get it)
It’s hard enough for kids to find work to fund gap years,
let alone future careers. EmilyJenkinson assesses young
people’s job prospects and offers some solutions
Vacancies for graduates have fallen for
the first time since 2003, with the
graduate job market expected to fall a
further 5.4 per cent in 2009, according
to the annual survey conducted by the
Association of Graduate Recruiters. No surprises there,
then, in this current climate, but it’s not just graduates
who are struggling to find work. School leavers trying to
raise money for their gap years, as well as students simply
looking for holiday work, are also feeling the impact of the
recession, and financial support from parents can’t always
be relied upon. So how are young people supposed to cope?
For the school leavers of 2008 going on to do gap years,
it has been noticeably harder to raise money according
to Tom Pope, who left Tonbridge School last year and is
spending January to July this year volunteering in a prep
school in Cape Town. He started planning his trip in July
last year and had to raise £2,000 to fund it. “I raised all
the money on my own. My parents were fairly reluctant to
give me any money at all – a bit tighter than they would
normally be. It was very hard to find work. Far from being
able to hire young students, companies were having to fire
some of their oldest and most trusted employees.”
Another gap year student, Nick Mason, left Eton in
2008 and is spending five months travelling the world. He
raised £4,000 working for an internet company in London,
but agrees that “work didn’t come that easily”. Nick as
lucky to receive financial aid from his godfather, who
helped fund part of his ticket, but admits that asking for
money in a recession can be an “awkward question”. As one
parent remarked, “Unless it’s a niece or a godchild, I don’t
give anymore. We’re all feeling poorer and I have to draw
the line somewhere.”
With regards to their future job prospects, gap year
students are relieved not to be facing the graduate market
now, but, as Nick points out, “It may well be difficult for
us to find holiday work.” Certainly for undergraduates,
finding those holiday jobs and internships is not as easy
as it used to be...
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