Our Results Day Survival Guide is out next month and it contains a series of articles on all of the various options that are open to you after you leave school. We thought we'd give you the chance to get the information first - and first up, it's the option of getting out into the real world and starting work.
These days, school leavers have more choice than ever before – and each of those choices, whether it’s higher education, apprenticeships or a gap year, has its benefits and drawbacks. If you’re a school leaver or a sixth-former considering going straight into the jobs market, you need to know what is out there waiting for you, and the pros and cons of going straight into work fromschool.
Good Stuff
If you are considering getting a job straight out of school, it could be the allure of earning a wage which is swaying you in that direction.
As a member of the national workforce you’ll be entitled to a minimum wage – which varies depending on your age. Minimum wage for a 16-year-old school leaver will be less than that for an 18-year-old sixth form leaver – currently it’s £4.98 for someone aged 18-20 and £3.68 for someone aged 16-17. The minimum changes according to government policy (and is due to increase as of October 2013) but you can find current rates at https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates.
One of the other draws of going straight into a job is that you can get a head start on your peers in terms of experience. Academia and learning the theory behind a trade is great, but it isn’t for everyone. For some people, the best way to learn is by doing, and going straight into a job means you’ll start learning from real world experience from day one. You’ll benefit from the experience of your new colleagues and you’ll get at least three years’ experience of the workplace on your university and college-going peers. Just because you’re not going on to higher education it doesn’t mean that you’ll stop learning by going straight into a job. Many jobs offer training programmes, and some of them lead to work-based qualifications like NVQs. Other occupations have well-developed professional qualifications which can see you get post-graduate degree-level qualifications whilst working in the job. These can help expand your skill set and progress on up the career ladder.
Bad Stuff
In recent years you cannot have failed to notice that the entire world is going through some difficult economic times. Many businesses are having to make hard decisions like cutting jobs and even closing down because of the trading climate. This means that you’ll be entering the jobs market at perhaps the most difficult and tumultuous time in the last few decades. The current unemployment rate for 16-24-year-olds is 20.5% and in total 950,000 young people were unemployed as of April 2013. Obviously this means more people are competing for fewer jobs, and as a school leaver competing for these jobs, you might find yourself competing against other candidates with more qualifications and more experience. To give you an idea of how tough things are – currently every graduate job that’s advertised has 52 applications. The reality is 16-year-olds who go straight into work often end up in unskilled, low paid jobs.
AlternativesStart Your Own Company
If you’re the enterprising type, you might be planning on bypassing the difficult jobs market entirely by starting out on your own in business. While this attitude is great, the reality of working for yourself has also been made more difficult by the recession. A great business idea could still work even in these difficult times though, and if you have a business plan and you can prove there is a place in the market for it, you might just succeed. For advice and information on starting a business, visit https://www.gov.uk/browse/business. You should also look at the Prince’s Trust who provide advice and funding for young people looking to start their own business. http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/
Finding And Starting A New Job
So you’ve weighed up the pros and cons of going straight into a job against going on to further study and decided that you want to work – but who can help you on this path? Well, Not Going to Uni for one – we’ve got a full range of advice on our website. You should also visit a careers advisor or speak to a careers advisor online about the sorts of jobs school leavers typically take on, or do some research at www.gov.uk. This will give you a feel for what is out there, what might suit you, and how to go about applying for these jobs. Also, visit your local JobCentre Plus to search for local vacancies and to speak to an adviser. You can search local jobs on the government’s search engine at https://www.gov.uk/jobsearch
Once you’ve got some good advice and planned your job-hunt where do you start looking for vacancies?
Start with some (or all) of these:
-The web
-Local newspapers
-Shop windows
-Supermarket notice boards
-Asking family and friends to notify you if they see anything
Just because you’re not seeing vacancies in these places, it doesn’t mean that the vacancies don’t exist. You could prepare lots of copies of your CV and make speculative applications (where you write a polite letter to a company asking them if they would consider employing you, or giving you work experience) by post or in person. You might also want to submit your CV to recruitment agencies or even career networking sites like LinkedIn, where people can both apply for and recruit for jobs. Starting a new job can be tough, but when you do land yourself a job, be sure to be polite and courteous, listen carefully to your colleagues and bosses and remember to ask questions if there is something you don’t quite understand. If you have any questions regarding your pay, holiday entitlement or benefits, you should speak either to your line manager, your HR department or HR representative.
