By Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour member
Kash Jones, a reporter for the BBC, interviewed a number of sixth formers, university graduates and academics in a Panorama programme last week, titled, Has Covid Stolen my Future?
Those who are under 25 years old are twice as likely to have lost their jobs as a result of the Covid crisis. Around a half of young people have had their hours cut. Jones interviewed a 23-year-old who had started training as a pilot. Due to Covid , the airline have stopped funding the training and trainees must pay £60,000, if they wish to continue on the course. The Government’s response to the looming youth unemployment crises is the so-called Kick Start, scheme which gives those on work experience the minimum wage for six months and a boost in training, apprenticeship, but what effect this will have on youth unemployment remains to be seen.
Reliant on workers’ overtime
Ironically, in the bus industry, where I work, there still remains a shortage of bus drivers. Àt the start of the pandemic, the bus company I work for shut the training school and as a consequence, services are reliant on drivers working overtime. Reports suggest that the NHS is also suffering from staff shortages and it is affecting the ability of the health service to care for patients. The drive for profit and past cost cutting are responsible for this paradox.
Jones interviewed a sixth-former who had little in the way of education for six months and behind in her studies. According to the Source Centre for Economic Performance, in the London School for Economics, private schools had five times the teaching hours that were received in state schools. The Government have injected a further £58 million to schools, but this figure only equates to an extra £20 per pupil, and it is far from sufficient to cover the extra costs of Covid that schools are having to cover. Almost half of all school pupils are having to self-isolate and on-line teaching is no substitute for face to face teaching. Four out of ten are still not receiving the number of teaching hours they got prior to Covid.
Normal university experience denied
The situation in universities is even worse. Out of a hundred and fifty universities in the UK, 116 have had Covid outbreaks and have been in some form of lockdown. There have been no freshers’ fairs and the normal university experience that students expected has been completely lost for this generation. Around a third of graduates believe that they will not be able to secure the jobs that they would normally qualify for. Jones interviewed a group of post-graduates who were struggling to find any kind of employment at all.
Last but not least, there is the looming impact on mental health among the under 25s. Kooth, the largest counselling service for those between 11 and 24, has said that the number who have sought help with them has risen by 50 per cent. There has been a rise of 30 per cent in self-harm, according to Kooth, and an increase of 20 per cent in those who have suicidal thoughts.
Plaster over a gaping wound
The impact of the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on young workers and students and the Government’s response is the equivalent of placing a sticking plaster over a gaping wound. Labour must demand that the government offer a jobs guarantee on a decent living wage of at least £15 per hour. As Labour front-bench spokespersons were arguing under Corbyn’s leadership, we should be looking at a nation-wide programme of works to tackle unemployment and the introduction of a 35 hour/four day week without loss of pay, as means of securing full employment for all.
A properly planned programme of investment into our crumbling infrastructure and investment in modern green energy technology could provide hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs for young people and others retrained from old industries. Labour’s front bench needs to get its act together and start demanding some policies that will have a serious impact on unemployment.
The Panorama programme can still be seen on BBC i-player, here.
November 12, 2020
