FEWER young people are gaining work experience while they are in full-time education, according to a new study.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank also said half of all unemployed young people who are not in education have never had a job.
The study, published ahead of the latest unemployment figures, showed three-quarters of young people over 16 in all levels of education do not have a job.
The analysis of official figures revealed that since 1998 the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who have never had a job has almost doubled to 640,000.
Spencer Thompson, economic analyst at the IPPR, said: "Gaining experience of the world of work while studying is vital for the future job chances of young people, but fewer and fewer young people are working while learning.
"These findings show the need for a job guarantee for young people, paid at least the minimum wage, to provide them with experience. By having job experience when they leave full-time education, young people will be at a much-needed advantage when entering the jobs market.
"This would also ensure those who cannot afford to participate in unpaid work experience placements are not at a disadvantage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article