YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS - MAKE YOUNGSTERS MASSIVELY MORE ATTRACTIVE TO FIRMS.

JOHN CAUDWELL

@johndcaudwell

PRESS RELEASE

November 17, 2011.

CAUDWELL: YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS - MAKE YOUNGSTERS MASSIVELY MORE ATTRACTIVE TO FIRMS.

Entrepreneur John Caudwell, who was taken on as an engineering apprentice in Stoke-on-Trent more than 40 years ago, says a three-point plan needs to be put in place, fast, to tackle youth unemployment by making youngsters massively more attractive to firms.

“This is a huge crisis. It’s controversial, but somebody’s got to say it, so I will: A combination of the government considering temporarily lowering the minimum wage, considering changing employment laws, and significantly increasing incentives to employers to take on youngsters, is crucial to driving a turnaround in youth employment levels and making employing young workers a much more attractive value proposition,” said John Caudwell.

Caudwell, who sold his self-built mobile phone business for £1.5 billion in 2006, was taken on as an apprentice on around one-tenth of the £30 per week national average wage in 1970 - £3 11s and 6d a week, roughly half the 2011 equivalent – and was one of 200 apprentices taken on to learn a trade at the same time.

John Caudwell said: “A great deal of this issue is nothing to do with the attitude of the majority of youngsters – it’s to do with the value proposition to employers, and making employing youngsters attractive to employers.

“Employers must be incentivised to take on young people – employers know what works for them, so the government should listen.

“The government should also consider temporarily lowering the minimum wage, particularly for apprentices, so that more employers can afford to take on more young people for vocational training.

“The government should also take a long, hard, look at legislation that protects workers’ rights early in their jobs or careers – and consider changing the law to make it a lot easier to hire and fire. The employer is then taking less of a risk in taking somebody on who they may consider to be borderline viable, and those looking for work who may not otherwise have a chance get a chance.

“The combination of these three measures would hopefully motivate employers to create jobs, and get youngsters doing something rather than falling into a life-approach of institutionalised unemployment.

“If we don’t do this, we will end up with a desperate lack of skills in the future when the economy picks up, and, in addition, a new society of young social scroungers.

“Whether society likes it or not, the simple fact is that we have to make it attractive for employers to take youngsters on by taking a radical approach. If I was 16 again, then I’d rather be earning something and learning a skill or a trade than wasting my life away, and I’m sure that stands for a lot of young people.”

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

07788 978800

im@pressrelations.co.uk

@johndcaudwell