Teacher and Career Guidance Counsellor Vivian Cassells is calling for action on youth unemployment and says that the education system is failing many young people.
A survey carried out by the National Manpower Service and published by the Department of Labour estimates that 12 per cent of last year's 53,019 school leavers failed to find a job.
The survey has been criticised by career guidance counsellor Brother Vivian Cassells, who argues that the basis of the survey is flawed. While he says that the figures are alarming, he believes that in reality they are much higher.
It's the method by which these figures were collected is the one in which I am a little bit dubious of.
Brother Vivian says that what we need to know is how many young people fail to get into the career of their choice. The survey found that 49 per cent of school leavers found jobs. He believes that there are a lot of people in the survey, who are hidden and are in jobs that are not the career of their choosing. He says that unless we can get precise figures, we are presenting
A rosey picture which is simply not true.
Brother Vivian gives the example of somebody who had their eyes on an engineering career who is now working as a petrol pump attendant. This person is included in the 49 per cent of students who found jobs, even though he may not be happy with his job.
According to the survey, 8 per cent of students returned to school due to the lack of employment opportunities. Brother Vivian believes that many of these are continuing with a system of academia which has no relevance to them. He points out that the education system is not geared to serve these people effectively.
Brother Vivian proposes that an employment premium scheme, whereby employers are incentivised to hire school leavers, would help to alleviate the problem of unemployment among school leavers. He believes that the adult unemployment problem is so severe in Ireland that nobody wants to tackle the problem of youth unemployment. He believes that the constant rejection of young people by employers will have a long lasting damaging effect on the morale of young people.
This episode of 'Seven Days' was broadcast on 17 September 1976. The presenter is Michael Ryan.
