It's Your Future – 12 week programme with taster sessions in Hair & Beauty, Media, ICT gaming, Childcare or Performing Arts, to help young people to decide on the right career path. Contact Sacha Corcoran or call 020 7700 8648.

Big Challenge 2 – Big Challenge is back and they need individuals or teams of young people aged 16 – 25 to tackle this year’s challenge: Many cultures, many individuals, how can you create unity in your community? Click here to read more.

Community Voices - Media Trust has opened up grants worth a total of £250,000 as part of its Community Voices project, which aims to inspire, engage and support disadvantaged and isolated communities to get their voices heard through digital media.

January Guarantee - On Tuesday 2nd February, a mailout was distributed to all 16-18 NEET YP and their parents' and carers' across the 7 central London boroughs, informing them of the January Guarantee opportunity. The letter directs them to contact their local Connexions centre via telephone or in person, to find out more information about the opportunity.

Resources pack to support Statutory Guidance: Impartial Careers Education - The resources pack is downloadable from the Continuing Professional Development section of the cegnet website.

Parents' & Carers' leaflet - The CLC Parents' & Carers' Information leaflet has been translated into 14 different languages, which are most commonly spoken within the 7 central London boroughs. They are available on the website for download.

Information, advice and guidance community - This section of the 14-19 support website features discussions and support for everyone helping young people to make decisions about their choices at 14-19.

Raising of the Participation Age (RPA) means that all young people will continue in education or training to 17 from 2013 and to 18 from 2015. The DCSF have created a section on their website with information and policy surrounding this.

The Transforming a Generation (TAG) initiative will create over 1000 new jobs across the country, helping NEET young people achieve a Level 2 Health and Fitness Instructor qualification, enjoy a four month paid work placement and build a career in the health and fitness industry. Find out more.

Careers Profession Taskforce – The taskforce has now been launched and aims to ensure all young people receive high-quality careers advice. It will look at recruitment and retention of qualified professionals; ensuring the profession is diverse; and whether all career specialists should hold a specialist qualification. Read more.

The Prince’s Trust YouGov Youth Index 2010 measures how young people feel about the state of their lives today and how confident they are about their future. Click here to read full document. 

Review of the equality implications of CEIAG for young people - An in-depth review of subject, careers information, advice and guidance to identify the impact of policy and practice on young people's post-16 destinations and career choices across the equality strands. If you would like to know more, contact Jo Hutchinson.

Disengagement from Education among 14-16 year olds – DCSF report is a quantitative analysis of disengagement from education among young people in England.

Measuring Severe Child Poverty in the UK – This Save the Children report highlights that the number of children living in severe poverty has risen over the period 2004/05–2007/08, from 11% to 13% of all children.

Apprenticeship Funding - National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) is to provide up to 5,000 ‘golden hellos’ of £2,500 to encourage employers to take on new 16-17 year old apprentices. Visit the site for more information. Interested employers should call the NAS help line on 08000 150 600.

Unleashing Aspiration: The Government Response to the Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions - Response includes plans to raise aspirations by focusing on four factors: care and development in early years, quality of schools, education and training post 16, and the skills of the workforce. Read full report.

16-19 Statement of Priorities and Investment Strategy 2010-11 - Gives details of the planned investment in young people’s learning.  This document represents a milestone for the transfer of responsibility for planning and funding of young people’s learning from LSC to local authorities.

Recession leaves almost half young black people unemployed – the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) shows that 48% of Black people aged 16-24 are unemployed. Ippr argues that this shows the government must consider alternative measures to prevent long-term unemployment. Read more.

Weathering the recession: Young people’s experiences of the recession – This report details the finding of an online survey conducted by The British Youth Council (BYC) in order to assess young people’s experiences of the recession to date.

Trends in young participation in higher education: core results for England – This publication shows a continuing increase in participation and an increased amount of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education.

A picture worth millions: State of the young person’s workforce – CWDC report which looks at the 6 million people involved in working with young people in the UK.  It contains information on the workforce’s demographic characteristics, structure, pay and benefits, recruitment, retention, training and qualifications.

Ready or Not report - Catch22's campaign calls for the years from 16 to 25 to be formally recognised as a specific life stage with explicit policies and an accountability framework from central and local government put in place. Read the full report.

The Audit Commission is currently producing a national report on ‘Older Teenagers not in education, employment or training’. The Commission would like to receive examples of good practice.  For further information please email neet@audit-commission.gov.uk.

Working with Muslim Youth: Using the Four Areas Model, 11 February – The aim of this course is to enable participants to improve their skills and knowledge in engaging more effectively with disaffected and hard to reach Muslim Youth. £57 - £115.

Introducing Coaching Conversations to Support Young People's Self-Development, 23 February - Coaching conversations enable young people to explore their choices and realise more of their potential. £55 - £110. Find out more.

14-19 Reform, 25 February, Manchester - provides guidance and best practice on how young people can be equipped with the core skills and qualifications needed for fruitful and sustained long term employment. There is a discount for Connexions staff, please contact Sarah Hope for details.

Workshop on safeguarding children and young people, 2 & 3 March - FREE workshops to familiarise participants with the ‘Are they Safe?’ toolkit and to explore how they can use it to improve safeguarding.

The National Career Guidance Show, 3 & 4 March – FREE two day seminar where careers professionals get access to the most up-to-date information, network and share best practice with colleagues from across the UK.

ICT in CEIAG - taking it further, 4 & 5 March - This conference is designed to encourage, inform and inspire Careers Co-ordinators, CEG Managers, Careers/Connexions Advisers, Work Related Learning and Diploma Co-ordinators.

DCSF spring term IAG conferences for senior leaders, 8 March - DSCF is hosting nine one-day regional conferences in March 2010, to support the delivery of the IAG Strategy within the context of school and 14-19 reforms.

Changing Careers Education: Information, Advice and Guidance that Motivates All Young People, 17 March - Delegates will gain an understanding of the new strategy, and discuss how future policy could change to deal with the raised participation age. Click here for more. 25% discount for Connexions.

Management Development Programme: Locality Teams - FREE training funded by the CWDC, for managers in the Young People’s Workforce in areas delivering or planning to deliver the youth offer through and alongside locality teams.

The recession may be over (just) and apprenticeships on the rise but job satisfaction remains low for some young workers.

The official GDP figures show the UK economy grew 0.1% in the last three months of 2009, ending the longest recorded downturn.

In the central London Connexions area the same quarter finally saw an increase in vacancies for young people (compared to the same period in 2008). July to August had been the third quarter in a row, year on year opportunity numbers have decreased.

However, central London is still struggling when compared to the rest of the capital. Across London boroughs, an average of six new vacancies per month with CLC boroughs averaging five. Central London boroughs were particularly hit badly by the recession, but have not matched the recovery in vacancies in London as a whole. Connexions vacancies throughout London increased by 37% in the last quarter of 2009 compared to 2008. Central London vacancies increased, but by only 29%.

On a more positive note, the drive to expand apprenticeships seems to be having an effect. Apprenticeship numbers across London are generally about 300% up on last year. Looking at the CLC area there has been a fairly consistent supply of apprenticeship vacancies with boroughs receiving an average of 12 notifications for the last quarter of 2009 (compared to a London borough average of six). CLC Apprenticeships are up 400% on last year. Westminster have received the most notifications, and the launch of the London Apprenticeship Company is partly behind this, but all boroughs have seen an increase in apprenticeship numbers. Vacancies from the National Apprenticeship Service website are now also being input on the Choice Jobs site and have a high proportion of admin and hospitality vacancies in the West End.

Apprenticeship Vacancies Per-Borough
 
But it is not all good news. A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found “plummeting'' job satisfaction and falling standards of living in research among 2,000 workers. Dissatisfaction was particularly common among young workers.

Claire McCartney of the CIPD said:

''Job satisfaction among young people has been decimated by this recession. The fact they've grown up in an era of plenty, and have not seen anything like this before, may well partly explain why they're so much unhappier than their older colleagues. The lack of opportunities to learn new skills or make their first steps up the career ladder is also likely to be grinding them down. The stagnant labour market means people are not moving on and up as they would like, leaving many young people stranded in entry-level jobs.''

The predominance of apprenticeship vacancies in central London should increase the opportunities to learn new skills. However, the tendency for understandably cost-conscious employers to stick to the minimum £95 per week is unlikely to alter the fact that “fewer than one in ten people believe their standard of living has improved in recent months.”

Trevor Bottomley
Employment & Labour Market Adviser
Central London Connexions
February 2010