The State of Job Placement System for New Graduates and Young Unemployment Policy in the United Kingdom

The Blair government of Great Britain has been taking action to help young unemployed people under the catchphrase,"Welfare to Work." Aiming to reduce costs,aggressive labour market policies are being implemented to encourage the unemployed to return to work. The illiteracy rate in the UK is still over 20% today;there are problems at the elementary school leveal,and droppong out of school has become a serious issue in the slums. Since one out of six adults have the reading,writing and arthmetic skills of only an eleven-year old or less,the government has been implementing policies to improve the basic skills(the number of 11 yean olds achiving the "expected" level)of 750,000 people by 2004. Serious problems such as drugs and delinquency among the young generation started 25 years ago,partly due to the increasing number of immigrants from former colenies. On the other hand,the wage differential widened following deregulation,particularly among unqualfied workers aged 15 to 16,compounding the problem. In the UK,people generally must look for work themselves;new graduates do not receive job introductions through their school and so browse job ads in local newspapers and apply themselves. While certain types of jobs require NVQ(National Vocational Qualification),most ads do not require NVQ as a condition for applying. However,the number of companies that require NVQ is increasing yesr by year:according to 2002 date,the figure was 34% for companies with 5 to 24 employees and 71% for companies with 500 employees or more. Because NVQ is skill with narrow occupation,however,companies tend to emphasize actual work experience over qualifications,preferring not to use inexperienced young workers. Although these are 1998 date,workers with a NVQ of Level 2(equivalent to the end of junior high school in Japan)or higher comprise only 53% of the total labour force in the UK. This compares poorly with 73% for France and 82% for Germany. In the 19 to 21 age range,however,the figure is 70%,showing that the UK is rapidly catching up as a result of extensive educational reform in recent years. In 2001,in a bid to solve the problems of a young labour force,an external organization of the Ministry of Education called Connexions began providing systematic services for those aged 13 to 19,such as vocational guidance,counselling and job infomation. This represents a major change from policies in the past,when job seekers were left to their own devices without any help after graduation. In the New Deal Programs,targeted at young unemployed persons,the Jobseeker\u27s Allowance will cease after 6 months if the person is still unemployed,unless the person sccepts assistance toward reemployment(work on a trial basis,basic vocational training,counselling by personal advisors). If still unemployed at this stage,the person will then be registered in the "New Deal Option," which allows the person to receive assistance by choosing from various options,including employment with pay and a training subsidy(6 months),participating in full-time education and training courses(12 months),and working for NPOs or other organizations to receive pay plus benefits(6 months). The UK has succeeded in substantially reducing the number of long-term(12 months or longer)unemployed persons since fully introducing the Jobseeker\u27s Allowance,and so this policy has attracted much attention from many countries. There is much to learn from the UK in terms of appraising polisy affectivenss,such as reviewing the vocational qualification system and introducing measures such as the New Deal Program to help the long-tarm unemployed