Voluntary national service for youths.

In my opinion, there needs to be support given to the significant amount of graduates and high school leavers whose future prospects have all but disappeared as an unfortunate consequence of this horrible disease.

These young individuals are going to be facing an employment crisis similar to that of the previous recession and measures should be put in place to ensure their newly learned skills are utilised and that their career progression does not stagnate.

A potentially unpopular idea in this regard could be the introduction of national service? Not necessarily military service, but any form of public duty. Even if offered to youths on a voluntary basis, I imagine many young people would be willing to give it a shot in an effort to try to further the careers, lots will enjoy the opportunity to give back to society... and some will just love to have something to do!

I imagine there is a lot of public sectors that could do with a helping hand as well! I appreciate that the practicalities of organising such a programme is the sort of thing that takes years to plan, trial and implement but the consequences of not attempting to support those that are about to enter the employment market during such uncertain times could be significantly detrimental to everyone, not just the youth.

Graduates from college, high schools and universities are going to be facing an incredibly tough employment market as a result of Covid-19. Whilst businesses do what they have to in order to survive, a significant proportion of young people in the UK will be completing studies during this time and will be becoming increasingly anxious as to what to do next.

The effect this will have on these people’s mental health is something that is not being examined at the moment.

These youths and protecting their future is not a priority at the moment for the government and this is understandable. However in the coming year, they should not be forgotten about and schemes to promote graduate employment, internship schemes or other incentives for businesses to start hiring again should begin to be planned. In my opinion, I think establishing a national service programme would allow for these individuals to be supported in an interim manner whilst also supporting the public sector.