Every August thousands of 16-to-18 year olds are faced with the life-defining decision of whether to remain in education or take their first steps into the world of work.
Whereas this used to be a fairly straightforward choice for many, spiraling higher education costs and a wider variety of options outside of the traditional education sphere, mean that more and more school leavers are seriously considering other opportunities.
And it isn't just school leavers that are realising they have more options. Increasingly, businesses are identifying that this presents them with a great opportunity to hire fresh, young talent and are working with training providers, such as Acorn, to offer training programmes specifically designed for school leavers who don't want to take the university route.
In 2015, 36% of British businesses planned to hire university graduates, whereas 38% are hoping to employ school leavers.
There are a number of Government initiatives to support businesses to employ 16-24 year olds, and Apprenticeships and Job Growth Wales opportunities are key examples.
The Job Growth Wales programme, led by the Welsh Government, supports employers looking to provide young people with employment opportunities. This is a cost-effective way for businesses to develop and shape their workforce as the employer will receive a wage subsidy via the Welsh Government which is now 50% of the wage bill for a 26 week period.
Businesses offering such recruitment and training opportunities demonstrate that they are serious about developing talented people, of any age.
Just this week, Acorn has over 30 Job Growth Wales opportunities with leading Welsh businesses, across a number of industries including IT, Sales, Retail, Marketing, Customer Service, Farming, Industrial and these numbers are growing every month.
It's exciting to see such commitment from employers when recruiting and developing 16-to-24 year olds, and I urge anyone responsible for workforce planning to be aware of all the recruitment and training initiatives available.
