Place yourself in the shoes of a young person within the NEET (not in education, employment or training) category living in Middlesbrough. You’ve been applying for lots of jobs but, if you do receive a response to your application, the answer is no. The reason you are given is that you do not have sufficient experience. This is the beginning of the vicious cycle of inexperience and unemployment which many young people in Middlesbrough, and across the country, find themselves trapped in.
As part of my role as Volunteering Development Officer on the Match Your Volunteering Talent project, I want to help end this vicious cycle for young people. I believe volunteering is one way of achieving this. There is an opportunity for young people who lack work experience to develop existing skills, and gain new ones, through volunteering. Along the way they may also gain other benefits from volunteering, such as improved confidence, experience of the workplace, and an enhanced CV.
Having been a young volunteer myself I have very positive views on the benefits of volunteering for organisations and for young people. I was therefore disappointed to hear that some organisations will not take on young people as volunteers. The main reason organisations have given for this is that young people will not want to volunteer on a long-term basis, and that they will only be using volunteering as a stepping stone. When an organisation has limited resources, it is understandable that it needs to be careful when recruiting new volunteers. However, the very nature of volunteering means that it is unlikely that an organisation will retain all of its volunteers in the long-term.
While this may be off-putting, there is a more positive viewpoint that can be adopted. Volunteer involving organisations play a very important role in society. They give those who have something to offer, but who for whatever reason are unable to achieve their potential through paid employment, an opportunity to carry out meaningful activity. Volunteering has the potential to provide huge benefits to organisations and volunteers but there needs to be a mutual understanding of the opportunities and drawbacks for everyone involved.
It seems clear that a more open-minded approach is needed when it comes to supporting NEET young people. Currently the message we are sending out to them is that they will be unable to progress into paid work because they lack experience, however we are not willing to give them the opportunities to gain this experience. This kind of catch-22 is one which will harm not just the individuals directly involved, but society as a whole.
It is widely acknowledged that those individuals who are unemployed when they are young face hardship across their entire lifespan. They struggle to ever reach their full potential, they face financial difficulties, and they may also be more susceptible to both mental and physical health problems.
It would be naive to think that volunteering alone can solve the youth unemployment problem in Middlesbrough, and across the country. However, if we harness the talent and potential of young people through encouraging them to volunteer, we all stand to benefit both in the short-term and long into the future.
