CLASSOF2020 – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0024)

Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry

 

Submission of evidence, from: Dr Norbert Morawetz, Founder, Classof2020 and Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship at Henley Business School

 

Background

Classof2020 is a not-for-profit organisation which was set up in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and its impact on the employment prospects of young people. The Classof2020 website provides young people with free access to training materials covering a wide range of topics focusing on in-demand digital skills as well as professional development of general business skills. The initiative has been supported by leading businesses including Salesforce, Microsoft, O2 and PwC who have made their resources free to access, to help people develop the skills that employers need. 

The project has been awarded a Covid-19 emergency response grant from Innovate-UK.

https://www.classof2020.org.uk/

https://potential.ly

 

 

What are the main challenges facing young people seeking employment today? How do structural factors impact youth unemployment, and how might these be addressed?

 

  1. The pandemic saw traditional grad schemes close their doors, first job opportunities evaporate, and whole sectors such as leisure and hospitality that can be good first experiences at employment shut down. Whilst the shift to home working has been embraced by some professionals with more experience and secure jobs, to those entering the work force for the first time it meant a barrier to on-the-job learning, and scarcity of opportunities. Graduates are left competing against those with many years more experience, and the problem will only get worse when a new year of students starts seeking work after finishing education this summer.

 

  1. From working with employers to set up Classof2020, we know that businesses are demanding digital skills such as CRM, developer skills and analytics, which aren’t currently on the curriculum. This means that graduates and school leavers entering the workplace require additional training for these in-demand roles. Classof2020 makes learning materials in these areas free to access so that anyone can train and develop skills in the areas that employers need.

 

  1. One example is Salesforce, which expects 4.2millon new roles to be available through its ecosystem by 2024. These roles require specialist skills, which aren’t currently part of the curriculum. Bringing these skills into education would give our young people an advantage, making them more competitive in the job market with experience of the workplace tools they need before they start their career.

 

 

What are the main challenges facing employers in the labour market today? What barriers do they face in recruiting young workers and setting up apprenticeships and traineeships?

 

  1. Conversely, employers are finding that young people don’t have the skills they need, which can mean having to invest in training before new recruits can begin adding value. In an environment as competitive as the present labour market, it is more likely to mean employers choose the more experienced candidate, leaving younger people struggling to enter the workplace.

 

  1. Whilst some apprenticeships are seeking to address the digital skills gap, the demands of business move faster than apprenticeship standards. By working closely with employers, and sourcing training materials directly from them, we can ensure that young people are being trained in exactly the areas that employers need.

 

 

What future social, economic and technological changes are likely to impact youth unemployment? What impact might these changes have, and how should this be planned for and addressed?

 

  1. Employers need specialist, technical skills – and a range of businesses and industries now use the same technology and software at the core of their business to handle customer data. Treating this as a basic need for those entering the workplace, in the same way that a certain level of English, Maths and Science is expected, would better equip our young people for the modern world they are joining. Without preparing our young people with the skills that employers demand, they will continue to lose out on jobs to those with more experience, and struggle to get a foot in the door.

 

  1. The pandemic has made flexible working much more common, and accelerated a ‘work from anywhere’ approach to big global businesses. The risk of this is that leading businesses can source talent from a pool which is no longer local to their offices – saving costs or seeking out specialisms from other labour markets. The approach to preparing young people with the right skills should be based on global needs and areas with expected job growth.

 

  1. The pandemic and Work-from-Home culture is likely to further heighten social mobility issues: “Who you know” continues to matter as much as “What you know”. Finding first jobs often depends on personal networks, which young people from socio-economic challenging backgrounds are less likely to possess. At the same time, they will not yet have had the opportunity to acquire strong skills around online professional networking. In this respect we see support for core employability skills, such as researching job and networking opportunities and developing confidence to reach out to possible mentors as essential.

 

 

Does the national curriculum equip young people with the right knowledge and skills to find secure jobs and careers? What changes may be needed to ensure this is the case in future?

 

  1. Knowledge and skills from the curriculum should align with the demands of business. To establish Classof2020, we have engaged with a range of leading businesses – who frequently tell us that they need ‘digital skills’ which aren’t currently taught on curriculums.

 

  1.                     What do businesses mean when they talk about ‘digital skills’? Very often, they refer to a set of digital software tools that are being used in their specific industry, e.g. specialist graphics software, CRM systems, or process automation software. The proliferation of Software-as-a-Service enterprise tools means that now a tremendous amount of industry best practice, process and knowledge is codified into this enterprise software. Understanding these enterprise software tools is essential to many new service-sector roles, and the competence level of the (young) worker to use the software directly corresponds to their productivity. 

 

  1.                     The most effective way to learn most digital tools is typically not via taught sessions, but via supported self-directed learning through experimentation. This requires self-efficacy (confidence to learn) and a somewhat ‘playful’ and self-directed learning mindset that is still not cultivated strongly enough at school. Incorporating this way of learning to other areas of the curriculum, could help young people continue to learn when they leave formal education.

 

  1.                     A further barrier to teaching/learning these tools is that they can often only be learned in context, meaning that for example the functionality of a tool can only be understood in the live context of a firm. Therefore, an interested young person would struggle to learn the required enterprise tools even if they have access to the software; most colleges and universities lack the ‘context’ to effectively teach these tools.

 

  1.                     This makes employers responsible for training, but in a competitive labour market companies prefer to hire experienced professionals who already possess the skills, than to training a young person. This is especially true for fast-growing micro-companies and SMEs, who need their human resources to perform quickly in a new role, don’t tend to have a full HR or L&D function and therefore don’t have the capability to teach and train young people.

 

  1.                     As more and more knowledge and process is codified into a plethora of specialist software tools, the gap between what is taught in formal education and required in the job market continues to widen. Boosting digital learning mindset and enabling practice-based training would improve the prospects of young people, enabling them to step into roles more quickly.

 

  1.                     This could also play a part in equalising opportunities across the wealth divide. Many sectors often rely on internships, and low paid entry roles, which can remain the preserve of those from wealthy backgrounds who can afford to support this. Giving young people a basic level of technical skills would mean that companies aren’t having to provide as much training on the job, and they can add more value at an earlier stage.

 

 

Is careers education preparing young people with the knowledge to explore the range of opportunities available? What role does work experience play in this regard?

 

  1.                     Work experience is of course invaluable in demystifying the workplace, improving interpersonal skills, building confidence and gaining an understanding of different roles within a business. But while this avenue of experience has remained closed off to young people, Classof2020 explored opportunities for young people to develop these skills remotely, through Podcasts and Webcasts with different professionals.

 

  1.                     One element of Classof2020 has been to create a series of Podcasts, which profile different professionals in a range of sectors and roles. This can help young people understand the day job of different career choices, as well as make them aware of different roles which they didn’t know about. For some people, knowledge of work can be very based on the employment of immediate family members, so exposure to a range of careers, in person or digitally is invaluable. The ability to access some of these insights virtually, also removes the barrier of having to support an unpaid internship, again often a preserve of those from well-off backgrounds.

 

What lessons can be learned from alternative models of education and assessment? What are the challenges with, and obstacles to, the adoption of such models?

 

  1.                     We established Classof2020 as an alternative education model that combines elements of business-led education, with formal education partners and includes a high degree of self-guided learning which can greatly enhance the job prospects of young people.

 

  1.                     A key challenge to alternative models of education and assessment remains the formal accreditation and recognition of skills acquired through self-directed learning or in the workplace. Without such accreditation, companies have no way of knowing whether a young person has the required skills to be successful in the role; or whether they possess the learning mindset required to upskill themselves, if tools and some support is provided. This uncertainty around how much support will be required greatly disadvantages inexperienced young workers.

 

  1.                     Key lessons learned from Classof2020 include;
    1. Business-led education is highly attractive to young people and prospective employers alike.
    2. Purely self-directed learning models require a high-level of discipline from individual learners to complete. Enhancing self-guided learning with blended (taught) learning elements and social learning elements (preferably networking opportunities with prospective employers) greatly enhances engagement. This however adds costs which currently neither young people or SMEs can easily cover.
    3. Self-directed upskilling works best when connected to concrete job opportunities or a recognised accreditation that credibly increases job opportunity.
    4. Young people are familiar with consumer-software but have had very limited exposure to enterprise-level software. They are unaware of what tools to learn and what skills are in demand. 
    5. Digital tools evolve rapidly, in line with rapidly changing industry. There is no formal training plan/curriculum for most digital tools. Traditional accreditation mechanisms are not able to keep up with the speed.
    6. The most suitable people to accredit skills are industry professionals or businesses, not education institutions. Where education institutions can help is with designing flexible yet robust frameworks and processes that allow micro-accreditation of digital skills.

 

 

 

 

 

What more needs to be done to ensure parity of esteem between vocational and academic study in the jobs market and society? How can funding play a role in this?

 

  1.                     From Classof2020 we see a convergence of vocational and academic study. Acquiring the desired ‘digital skills’ requires vocational learning modes. In fact, most of lifelong professional development falls stronger into the vocational/technical category than the academic realm.

 

  1.                     As expressed above, as knowledge is increasingly codified into digital tools, vocational learning likewise benefits from unpacking the underlying academic concepts that are ‘baked’ into these tools. ‘Higher’ order learning can take place, if opportunity and support for reflection and study is given.

 

  1.                     Recognising that vocational and academic learning are not distinct, but inseparable in digital skills is first step to increase esteem.

 

  1.                     Academic study greatly benefits from institutional ranking tables, which signal excellence and confer esteem and position. While we have minimum professional training standards that need to be met in e.g. apprenticeship programmes, there is limited opportunity to convey excellence. ‘Recognised’ vocational training too often means completing training with a big employer with a recognisable brand. The most interesting opportunities lie however with SMEs, who often don’t have this brand value. It is possible to envision a ranking system that allows young people to talk about the excellence of their vocational training, in the same way as a student in Higher Education might speak of their Russell group university.

 

  1.                     Formal academic and vocational study programmes aside, we see one of the biggest gaps in the vocational skills gap that exists between education and the job market. Funding can play an important role to alleviate this situation. We propose;
    1. a CPD learning account for every young person, which may be used towards micro-accreditation of digital skills they have acquired; including a credential/ training that helps them learn how to upskill/ direct their own digital learning effectively.
    2. micro-accreditation can be carried out by businesses and/or universities
    3. micro-accreditation can also be carried out via a peer-review system, supported by technology. Classof2020 has carried out some initial investigations into this area, supported by InnovateUK grant funding (InnovateUK project 65178).

 

 

What is the role of business and universities in creating a thriving jobs market for young people? How should they be involved in developing skills and training programmes at further and higher education level?

 

  1.                     The willingness of high-profile firms to be involved when establishing Classof2020 is evidence that business wants to help ensure young people have the skills they need. We have engaged with leading businesses including Salesforce, Microsoft, Seedrs, PwC and SAP to name a few, and have had no difficulties in demonstrating why they should make their professional training materials free to access. The benefit of this to young people is that once they have used these tools, they can add them to their CV, talk about them at interview, and be more prepared when starting first roles.

 

  1.                     The Classof2020 model demonstrates that businesses can be involved by providing access to training and development materials to help support both those that are decided on a career, and those that want to try different things and explore their interests. Professionals can also host Webcasts and Podcasts to give young people more of an idea about the range of careers available to them when entering the workforce. This equips young people with the tools they need, as well as creating relationships between businesses and schools or universities, which can accelerate recruitment, open doors for young people, and make the step from education to workplace less of a leap into the dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can be done to ensure that enough apprenticeship and traineeship placements are available for young people? Is the apprenticeship levy the right way to achieve a continuing supply of opportunities?

 

  1.                     The apprenticeship levy remains complex for many SMEs to understand and to access. We suggest two improvements:
    1. Similar to the Gateway Body Scheme for Kickstart, set up administrative bodies working with SMEs to reduce the administrative burden in setting up apprenticeships and meeting requirements.
    2. Especially in the digital sector, co-working spaces have firmly established themselves as a location of work. These work-spaces bring a high number of fledgling businesses together, who collaborate and form business relationships. Recognising the nature of this physical and often business interconnectedness, allowing two or more companies to jointly look after an apprentice would create a number of high-quality internships. “It takes a village to raise a child”… why not let business communities that are already highly interrelated jointly educate apprentices.

 

 

10th May 2021