Yesterday, the Evening Standard announced its apprenticeship campaign in an effort to combat soaring rates of youth unemployment; one in four young Londoners are currently unemployed. They are asking companies great and small to take on an apprentice to provide an unempoyed youth the experience they need and a first step onto the career ladder. Smart, enthusiastic and hard-working youths are unable to find work due to a lack of experience, yet it is experience they need the most. The Digital Marketing industry is the ideal to implement this scheme and provide the experience so desperately needed.
Why? Social media is the language of the under 25s. Older generations may have learnt to use this well, but the younguns are the ones who live and breath social media. They are in a key position to understand how your consumers use social media, how they interact with brands, and perhaps most importantly, one consitutes a ‘social media fail’.
The nitty gritty is that apprentices will work at least 30 hours per week for one year, with one working day off to allow them to complete their NVQ or Advanced training. Companies will be required to pay the national apprentice wage of £2.60 an hour, although companies are encouraged to pay the minimum wageof £6.08/hr or the London living wage of £8.30/hr. The Government may offer up a £1,500 grant to companies with less than 1,000 employees.
Really, it’s a win-win situation. Your company gets an enthusiastic worker for very little fiscal cost, a currently unemployed youth gets a wealth of experience and some great contacts, and just maybe, the UK will find its way out of this recession yet.
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