My heart dropped recently when I recently heard a careers advisor speak to a room full of students. Not the act of speaking to the students – clearly careers advice in itself in an excellent and much needed practice so I am encouraged when careers professionals are deemed an integral part of student development, however, what got me down was what I took away as the lasting message. After some perfectly adequate and relevant information delivery – the advisor said “and as you can see from the most recent unemployment statistics, there are over 1 million people out of work. It is hard to get a job.” What’s the problem with that statement you ask? Valid question I suppose. After all, November ONS figures highlight that UK unemployment rose by 129,000 in the three months to September to 2.62 million, as youth unemployment rose above a million. As the BBC reported, the jobless total for 16 to 24-year-olds hit a record of 1.02 million in the quarter and female unemployment was at its highest for 23 years. The the jobless rate hit 8.3%. While the facts speak for themselves, what made my heart sink was the fact that this information was presented as a foregone conclusion to the students in the room. The context of that statement was that it was presented in isolation. No following words of encouragement about why its therefore exceptionally important to focus on developing yourself etc. None. This approach unsettled me. Yes these statistics are a verified reflection of the current climate – but they are not an indication of anyone’s fate and should...
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